After the rule changes, how the coast is actually trading

A year ago, the coastal property conversation in Spain was almost entirely about rules: the end of the golden visa, a proposed tax on non-EU buyers, tighter local licensing for short-term lets. By this September, most of that has either settled into place or stalled in Madrid, and the everyday business of buying and selling on the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca has got quietly on with itself.

That is not a small thing for anyone starting a search now. Markets are easier to read when the headlines calm down. What follows is our honest read of where things stand, not a forecast dressed up as one.

What actually settled

The golden visa route, which let non-EU buyers gain residency through a property purchase, closed in April 2025 and has not returned. We still meet buyers who assumed it was still running; it is worth knowing early, before it shapes a search that no longer needs to.

The much larger proposal, a steep additional tax aimed at non-EU, non-resident buyers, announced by the government in early 2025, has continued to be debated in Congress without a firm timetable for a vote. We would not plan a purchase around either its arrival or its disappearance. For now, the tax position for a non-EU buyer is the same as it was before the announcement.

Short-term rental licensing, meanwhile, has tightened town by town rather than nationally, with some Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca municipalities now capping new tourist licences or requiring stricter building compliance. If a rental income plan is part of your reasoning, the local town hall's current rules matter more than anything written in the national press.

Money got a little easier to find

The twelve month Euribor, the reference most residential mortgages in Spain are tied to, peaked above four per cent in late 2023 and has spent the two years since drifting down as the European Central Bank eased its own rates. By this September it sits well below that peak, which has quietly improved the arithmetic for anyone borrowing, resident or not.

Non-resident mortgages remain a narrower product than resident ones. Spanish banks still typically lend up to around seventy per cent of value to non-residents against a higher share for residents, and they want to see clean, well-documented income before they move quickly. None of that has changed; it is simply less punishing than it was when rates were at their highest.

Who is buying, coast by coast

The buyer mix on the two coasts still runs along familiar lines, and September has not disturbed it. British buyers remain the largest single group on the Costa del Sol, still drawn to Marbella, Estepona and the towns around them, alongside a steady flow of Scandinavian and German interest further along the coast.

On the Costa Blanca, the balance tips more towards Belgian, Dutch and German buyers, particularly around Jávea, Moraira and the towns north of Alicante, with British demand concentrated further south around Torrevieja and Orihuela Costa. Irish interest has grown on both coasts over the past two years, a trend estate agents on the ground mention consistently even where hard figures are harder to pin down.

What we notice more than any single nationality shift is a slower decision process generally. Buyers are spending longer comparing towns, renting for a season before committing, and asking sharper questions about community fees, ITP and the annual running costs of a property before they view a second time.

Supply still catching its breath

New build supply remains the tighter side of the market on both coasts. Licensing delays at town hall level, driven by environmental permitting and infrastructure sign off, continue to push completion dates back on developments that were marketed two or three years ago. Anyone buying off plan should still expect the build to run later than the brochure suggested, and build that expectation into their own plans rather than treat it as bad luck if it happens.

Resale supply tells a different story. On the Costa Blanca in particular, a longer stretch of owners who bought a decade or more ago are now bringing well kept, unrenovated properties to market, which has given buyers genuine choice at a range of price points that new build simply does not offer. The Costa del Sol's resale flow is thinner in the most sought after towns and considerably freer once you move even fifteen minutes inland.

The quietest part of a market, we have found, is usually the most honest part to buy in.

What this means if you are starting a search now

None of this points to urgency in either direction. It points to a market that has stopped reacting to headlines and gone back to being local: town by town, street by street, decided by the ordinary things that decide any purchase, orientation, community fees, distance to the beach, the state of the roof.

If you are starting a search this autumn, the practical steps are the same ones we always suggest. Get your Spanish tax number (NIE) organised early, since it holds up far more than people expect. Speak to a Spanish mortgage broker before you fall for a property, not after, so you know what you can actually borrow. And spend real time in a town before you commit to it, ideally across more than one season, because the version of a place you meet in August is rarely the whole story.

We are always happy to talk through what any of this looks like for your own search, coast by coast, town by town, with no pressure attached to the conversation. If you would like an honest read on where things stand for the kind of property and life you have in mind, we are glad to help you think it through, and to introduce you to the local people we trust when you are ready.