$2 million for a hideaway on the Costa Blanca: the search for a home in Spain

The prices of real estate in Javea, a former fishing village and now a resort town on the Mediterranean coast, offer comparative value in Spain's luxury market.

This six-bedroom house in eastern Spain for $1.97 million (1.963 million euros). The six-bedroom, five-bathroom house is situated on a 4.9 acre plot in the Montio Ermita section of Javea, a former fishing village and now resort town in the popular Costa Blanca region of Spain.

Unique house

The house was built in 2000 by its current owner, an architect, using natural wood, open spaces and terraces hung with plants. The house's shape resembles the letter "L" and surrounds an inground pool, with most of the living happening on the first floor.

"It has a colonial feel," - says sales agent Natasha Freitag of Lucas Fox, a Spanish luxury agency working with Savills of England. "You walk into this territory and you think, 'I could be in Bali'." It is an oasis of tranquility.".

Amenities

The main house has five bedrooms; four of them are located along a long hallway, ending with the master bedroom, which has exit doors to the lawned courtyard and pool area. Three other guest bedrooms face the hallway, each with access to a wooden walkway lined with bamboo and other tropical plants. The fifth bedroom next to the kitchen has its own bathroom.

The traditional kitchen-dining room has an outdoor wooden terrace. Above the kitchen is a one-room guest apartment with its own entrance.

Location and surroundings

The house is located on the south side of the foot of Mount Montjo, the highest peak in this part of Spain.

This flat plot of land is unusual for this coastal area, which juts out into the Mediterranean Sea, and where many homes are built along hills and rocky cliffs. Along with tropical plants and palm trees, the property has an olive grove, a pine forest, and cypress, orange and lemon trees. A 295-foot deep well and irrigation system provide self-maintenance for the lot, which is fenced and has an electric gate and alarm system.

The City of Javea

Javea is located in the north of the province of Alicante on the Costa Blanca, in the Commune of Valencia. It has Mediterranean beaches and a port, and is just across the Montio mountain range from Denia, a major port city from where you can catch ferries to Ibiza and the other Balearic Islands.

The picturesque seaside town of Javea (known locally as Había) has become one of the most attractive destinations for buyers looking for a temperate climate, sunny beaches and a relatively affordable cost of living. The resident population is around 28,000, but increases to over 100,000 in the summer.

The real estate market in Javea

The average selling price of homes in Javea in September was 736,208 euros, or 2,845 euros per square meter ($ 263 per square foot), according to Idealista, the largest real estate aggregator and consulting firm in Spain. This represents a 12 percent increase from the previous year and a 23 percent increase from the average of 2,320 euros per square meter ($ 215 per square foot) in March 2020.

According to Swiss real estate appraisal company RealAdvisor, the average house price in the province of Alicante at the end of September was €1,956 per square meter ($181 per square foot) for a house and €1,625 per square meter ($150 per square foot) for an apartment.

Spain has seen a surge in the number of foreign real estate buyers this year, according to the General Council of Notaries, which found that a record 20.3 percent of all housing transactions in the country in the first half of 2022 were done by foreigners.

Foreign buyers investing more than €500,000 in Spanish real estate can apply for residency permits through Spain's Golden Visa program.