Orihuela Costa property guide: prices, trends and rules

CASAFARI Area Insights puts the average asking price in Orihuela Costa at €3,065/m² for apartments and €3,036.7/m² for houses in Q3 2026 (from indexed listings, outliers excluded, not transaction prices). Apartment asking prices are up 39.4% since Q1 2023, but rose only 4.0% year on year in Q3 2026 after a 20.8% jump a year earlier. A 70 m² apartment lists at roughly €215,000 on average, and a 120 m² townhouse or villa at roughly €365,000. On a coast driven by northern-European buyers, the market has moved from boom to plateau.

Stand on the terrace of a two-bedroom show flat in Playa Flamenca in autumn 2026 with a couple who have flown down from Manchester or Utrecht, and the first question they ask the agent is almost always the same: have we missed the boat? For two years, every visit seemed to come with a fresh price list. Today, the honest answer in the numbers is that they have not missed it, though the sprint is over.

Where is Orihuela Costa, and which urbanisation is which?

Orihuela Costa is not a town in its own right, but a 16 km coastal district of the municipality of Orihuela, whose historic cathedral city sits some 30 km inland across the Vega Baja orchards. The coastal strip runs from Punta Prima on the northern edge—where the streets merge almost seamlessly into Torrevieja—down to Dehesa de Campoamor on the border with the Region of Murcia.

Rather than a single promenade, buyers find a succession of distinct urbanisations divided by the N-332 coast road and the AP-7 motorway. Along the sea sit Punta Prima, Playa Flamenca, La Zenia, Cabo Roig and Campoamor, where low-rise blocks and detached villas gather around small coves, the Cabo Roig marina and the open-air shopping streets of La Zenia Boulevard. A few minutes inland, the terrain rises towards the fairways of Villamartín, Las Ramblas and Real Club de Golf Campoamor, surrounded by residential pockets such as Los Dolses, Las Filipinas and Los Altos.

Flight connections explain why so many northern Europeans treat this stretch as an easy commute: Alicante-Elche airport lies about 50 km north up the AP-7, while Murcia (Corvera) airport is about 40 km to the west. According to the Ayuntamiento de Orihuela population figures for 2025, the coastal district counted 30,171 registered residents at the end of December 2025, an increase of 7.7% in a single year within a total municipal population approaching 89,000 (the official INE padrón recorded 84,560 inhabitants across the municipality at 1 January 2025). British nationals form the largest registered group on the coast, ahead of Spanish and Ukrainian residents, and in July and August the real headcount multiplies several times over.

What does a home cost in Orihuela Costa?

In Q3 2026, CASAFARI Area Insights records an average asking price of €3,065/m² for apartments and €3,036.7/m² for houses in Orihuela Costa (location ID 312503, queried on 23 October 2026). These figures track what sellers and developers ask across indexed listings with statistical outliers removed, rather than the final notarised price agreed at completion.

To put those square-metre figures into everyday budgets:

• A typical 70 m² two-bedroom apartment lists at roughly €214,550 (around €215,000) at the coastal average.
• A typical 120 m² townhouse or detached villa lists at roughly €364,400 (around €365,000) at the coastal average.

Behind the single average lies a clear geographical split. Front-line apartments and villas in Cabo Roig, Campoamor and La Zenia command prices well above the coastal mean, while 1990s and early-2000s resale townhouses set back from the beach in Villamartín, Los Dolses and Las Filipinas trade comfortably below it.

Look closely at the two series and an unusual detail stands out: since Q3 2025, apartments in Orihuela Costa have listed at a higher price per square metre than houses (€2,947.3/m² against €2,914.5/m² at the crossover, compared with Q1 2023 when houses stood 14.9% above apartments at €2,526.4/m² versus €2,198/m²). That inversion is most likely because contemporary new-build apartment complexes with communal pools, underground parking and sea views dominate the active listed supply, whereas the house average is pulled down by a large stock of older resale quads and townhouses built two decades ago.

Are prices still rising?

Yes, but the pace has cooled markedly. Between Q3 2024 and Q3 2025, apartment asking prices in Orihuela Costa jumped by 20.8% (from €2,439.5/m² to €2,947.3/m²) and houses rose by 9.6%. Over the following twelve months to Q3 2026, annual growth settled to 4.0% for apartments and 4.2% for houses, with the latest quarter-on-quarter move adding just 0.8% for apartments (from €3,040.8/m²) and 0.3% for houses.

Property type	Q1 2023 asking price	Q3 2025 asking price	Q3 2026 asking price	Change since Q1 2023	YoY change (Q3 2025–Q3 2026)
Apartments	€2,198.0/m²	€2,947.3/m²	€3,065.0/m²	+39.4%	+4.0%
Houses	€2,526.4/m²	€2,914.5/m²	€3,036.7/m²	+20.2%	+4.2%

Even so, neither series has recorded a negative quarter since the start of the dataset in Q1 2023, leaving cumulative gains at 39.4% for apartments and 20.2% for houses. That local slowdown is showing up in asking prices earlier than in the official transaction statistics: the INE house price index, Q2 2026 (published on 7 September 2026 and based on completed sales across whole regions) still recorded year-on-year growth of 13.0% in the Comunitat Valenciana and 12.2% across Spain.

For a buyer walking into an agency this autumn, a 4% annual rise changes the conversation at the negotiating table. Sellers of older resale homes have less momentum behind ambitious asking prices, while developers—who keep headline list prices firm to protect earlier off-plan buyers—are seeing slower absorption: according to MIVAU new-build sales by municipality, 2025 (reported via COAPI Aragón), 796 new-build homes were sold across the municipality of Orihuela in 2025, placing it among Spain's leading non-capital municipalities alongside Estepona (892) and Dos Hermanas (853), yet down 26% on 2024.

Who buys in Orihuela Costa, and why?

No province in Spain relies more heavily on international buyers than Alicante. According to Colegio de Registradores data on foreign buyers by province, foreign nationals accounted for 43.29% of all registered home purchases in Alicante province in 2025—well ahead of Málaga (32.80%) and more than triple the Spanish national average of 13.82%—and that share edged up to 44.65% in Q1 2026. In total volume, Alicante province home sales in 2025 and Q1 2026 reached 53,385 transactions in 2025 (and 12,614 in Q1 2026), making it the third busiest province in the country after Madrid and Barcelona, and the first in Spain by turnover per inhabitant at 25.86 sales per 1,000 residents.

On the ground in Orihuela Costa, the quintessential buyer is a northern-European couple aged between 50 and 70 looking for a two- or three-bedroom apartment or townhouse in a gated community with a shared pool, typically spending between €180,000 and €400,000 in cash or with a modest mortgage. British buyers remain the largest nationality despite post-Brexit stay limits, joined by strong contingents from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia, Ireland and Poland, alongside a settled Ukrainian community since 2022.

What draws them south of Alicante rather than north towards Jávea, Moraira or Altea—or further south to the Costa del Sol—is straightforward value for money. Here, a newly built two-bedroom apartment within a short drive of the coves at La Zenia or Cabo Roig and three established 18-hole golf courses can still be found below €300,000, while a growing cohort of remote workers and newly retired residents now stays through the winter months.

What taxes and rules apply when you buy?

Transaction taxes in the Comunitat Valenciana depend on whether you buy a resale home from a private seller or a brand-new property directly from a developer:

• Resale properties (Impuesto de Transmisiones Patrimoniales, ITP): Under Ley 5/2025 de la Generalitat, the general transfer tax rate dropped from 10% to 9% for public deeds signed from 1 June 2026 onwards, with an 11% rate applying to the portion of the price above €1,000,000, as summarised in the guide to ITP rates in the Comunitat Valenciana under Ley 5/2025.
• New-build properties (IVA and AJD): Purchases from a developer carry 10% VAT (IVA) plus 1.4% stamp duty (Actos Jurídicos Documentados, reduced to 0.1% when the property will serve as the buyer's registered main residence).

Once notary, land registry and independent legal fees are added, buyers normally set aside a buffer on top of the agreed purchase price, slightly higher on new builds than on resales. Non-EU citizens, including British buyers, face no restrictions on buying property in Spain and need only a foreigner's tax identification number (NIE) and a Spanish bank account to complete, though time spent in the country without a residence visa remains capped by the Schengen limit of 90 days in any 180-day period. Keep in mind that non-resident owners also file annual declarations in Spain for imputed income when a holiday home sits empty and for rental income when it is let, so taking tailored advice from a local fiscal representative before signing an arras (reservation) contract is always sensible.

Can you let your Orihuela Costa home to holidaymakers?

Short-term tourist letting is legal in Orihuela Costa, but the regulatory hurdle is far stricter than it was a few years ago. Under Decreto-ley 9/2024 on tourist lettings in the Comunitat Valenciana (in force since 8 August 2024), every holiday let must hold a registration number in the regional Registro de Turismo, which is now valid for five years and renewable rather than indefinite. To obtain a new registration, an owner must provide both a municipal urban-compatibility report from Orihuela town hall and an official certificate confirming that the community of owners (comunidad de propietarios) does not prohibit tourist rentals in its statutes, and the registration number must appear on every portal advertisement.

The regional decree also draws a sharp line on length of stay: a tourist let (vivienda de uso turístico) is defined as a let of 10 consecutive days or fewer to the same guest. Any booking of 11 days or longer to the same tenant is classed as a seasonal rental under Spain's national urban leases law (LAU), an important distinction on a coast where northern-European visitors frequently book for three weeks in summer or three months in winter. At national level, a separate Tribunal Supremo ruling annulling the national short-term rental registry in May and June 2026 struck down the state single registry procedure (NRUA) for encroaching on regional powers, leaving the Valencian registration rules firmly in charge.

Because no verified rental series is included in this dataset for Orihuela Costa, we do not quote an indicative gross yield here. Small investors weighing a summer-and-winter letting strategy can explore CASAFARI for investors to assess local rental comparables unit by unit.

What are the risks of buying here?

Every second-home coast has vulnerabilities that brochure photography leaves out, and a cool-headed buyer should weigh five factors in Orihuela Costa:

1. Reliance on northern-European demand: With more than four in ten provincial purchases made by foreigners, local liquidity is sensitive to sterling exchange rates, northern-European mortgage rates and post-Brexit stay rules, with limited domestic demand to step in if international buyers pause.
2. Developer-led pricing vs resale reality: Because new-build launches set the upper asking-price benchmark while municipal new-build sales fell 26% in 2025, the gap between initial asking prices and actual closing prices tends to widen first on older resale properties when the market slows.
3. Tightening community and tourist rules: Neighbours in residential complexes can vote to bar new tourist licences, and five-yearly licence renewals mean a holiday-let business plan carries regulatory risk.
4. Municipal infrastructure pressure: Residents' associations on the coast have long debated the standard of road maintenance, street cleaning and healthcare capacity provided from Orihuela city 30 km inland, a strain that becomes acute when the summer population swells.
5. Ageing 1990s stock and environmental pressures: Many townhouses built during the turn-of-the-century boom require insulation, glazing and accessibility upgrades, while water stress in the Segura basin and winter storm erosion along smaller sandy coves are long-term realities for coastal homeowners.

How to check a price before you make an offer

On a coast where the same two-bedroom apartment in La Zenia or Villamartín can appear on four portals at three different prices, relying on portal averages alone makes it hard to tell a fair asking price from a speculative one. Before placing a reservation deposit, buyers and their advisers can run a street-level check using Comparables and market study to benchmark a property against competing resales and nearby new builds in the same urbanisation, and use Property Sourcing to view the clean history of a listing without portal duplicates.

For estate agents, valuers and analysts who want to track how the southern Costa Blanca compares with wider property market trends across Spain, our area guide to Spain and the Malaga area guide for a Costa del Sol comparison offer a direct benchmark. Technical teams building automated valuation models or market dashboards can query the same time series directly via the Area Insights API documentation (in English) and the Comparables and valuation API documentation, or create a CASAFARI account on platform.casafari.com to explore Orihuela Costa data first-hand.