Property for sale in Alicante

Buying a house in Alicante means buying in a city that lives all year, with the centre right on the sea and the port next to it. The municipality also includes the beach district of Playa de San Juan, Urbanova in the south and the island of Tabarca. Places such as El Campello, Sant Joan d’Alacant and San Vicente del Raspeig border it, but are separate municipalities. The airport is just outside the city, in the municipality of Elche. Buying here means choosing city life with a beach within walking distance and connections in every direction.

In the centre you live among shops and terraces, with the town beach and the main tram interchange within walking distance. Playa de San Juan is the beach district in the north of the municipality, with a long sandy beach, a golf course and its own tram line. Urbanova lies on the southern coast, close to the airport. Along the tram line to the university lie the residential areas of the inland city. Mind the name: Playa de San Juan belongs to Alicante, but the town of Sant Joan d’Alacant behind it is a different municipality.

In the city it is mostly flats, from old blocks in the centre to newer buildings on the edge, plus historic buildings. With an older building, much depends on what the owners’ community has already done: is there a lift, have the facade and pipes been renewed, and is the compulsory inspection up to date? Ask for the minutes. Playa de San Juan has flats along the beach. In the centre, parking rules and a low-emission zone apply; ask what that means for a car at the property. A listed building has its own rules for renovation, which you have an adviser check.

Alicante suits people who want city life without a car: tram, train and high-speed train leave from the city, and the airport is close by. It suits those looking for quiet or space less well. In June the Hogueras bring five days of fireworks and bonfires to the streets, and in the south, around Urbanova, you notice the airport; the airport measures noise there. After a severe storm in the late nineteen nineties the city built large drains and a flood park, but the risk has not gone. Have the flood map checked per address.

The tram runs from the centre to Playa de San Juan, to El Campello and on along the coast via Villajoyosa to Benidorm. From the station, high-speed trains run to Madrid and suburban trains to Elche and Murcia. The city’s large public teaching hospital has its own tram stop, and there is a second one in Sant Joan d’Alacant. There is a European school in Playa de San Juan and a British school on the edge of the city. To the south lies Santa Pola; read more about this coast on the page about the Costa Blanca South.