Property for sale in San Pedro del Pinatar

Buying a house in San Pedro del Pinatar means buying in the region of Murcia, just across the border from the Costa Blanca. The municipality sits at the northern tip of the Mar Menor, a shallow saltwater lagoon, and also has a strip of coast on the open Mediterranean. In between lies a protected natural park with salt pans and dunes, where nothing is built. The centre lies inland on flat, low ground, with shops and amenities close by. Buying here means choosing between living by the lagoon, in the centre or in the districts in between.

Lo Pagán is the district on the lagoon, with the promenade, the beaches and the mud baths; it is the liveliest centre and in summer the busiest. Los Cuarteros is also on the Mar Menor. The centre and residential areas such as Los Antolinos and Las Esperanzas lie inland, further from the water. El Mojón, on the open sea, is on the border: part of its streets belongs to Pilar de la Horadada and therefore to another region, with different rules for healthcare and tax. Check on the paperwork which municipality a home is in.

On the promenade of Lo Pagán and along the lagoon it is mostly flats. In the centre and the residential areas inland you find linked bungalows, flats and new-build projects, often with a shared pool. The municipality is flat and fairly densely built between the lagoon and the natural park. With a home on the promenade or the beach, the coastal law may apply, and building restrictions apply next to the protected park; have an adviser check what that means for the plot. What is under construction now is on the new-build page for San Pedro del Pinatar.

San Pedro suits people who want to live all year in a Spanish town, with flat ground for cycling and the natural park for walking. It suits those who count on the lagoon for every swimming day less well: since the middle of the last decade the Mar Menor has had several episodes of oxygen loss and mass fish deaths, and scientists still call it fragile. The beaches on the open sea are the alternative. The area is also low-lying, and heavy rain has hit the region hard in recent years; have the flood risk checked per address. Away from the promenade you need more Spanish than on the Costa Blanca.

The public hospital for San Pedro is in the municipality of San Javier, with an emergency department open day and night; for more complex care you go to Cartagena. The Región de Murcia airport at Corvera is about half an hour away by car, Alicante further via the AP-7. The old San Javier airport is closed to civilian flights, so adverts that count on it are out of date. The municipality has a fishing port and marinas on both the lagoon and the sea. Read more about this coast on the page about the Costa Cálida.