Costa Blanca house prices soar as Benidorm and Torrevieja push affordability to the limit
A new report lays bare the growing affordability gap on Spain's Costa Blanca, where tourist towns are pricing out everyday buyers
Buying a home on the Costa Blanca has never been harder. A new report from property consultancy Tinsa Accumin paints a stark picture of a housing market under serious pressure, with prices along the Alicante coast rising faster than almost anywhere else in Spain and affordability stretched well beyond what most experts consider sustainable.
The report found that prices are accelerating in 68% of the smaller municipalities it looked at, and nearly half of those, 45%, have seen year-on-year increases of more than 10%. Alicante province is one of the places where this trend is most obvious, and the numbers coming out of its coastal towns will make any potential home owner a bit nervous.
Benidorm and Torrevieja, in particular, are both now showing what the report calls a "theoretical purchase effort" of 63%, meaning a typical buyer would need to put 63% of their income towards buying a home. To put that in context, 35% is considered the upper limit of what's reasonable.
In Benidorm, the average price per square metre has hit €2,398 after jumping 19.1% in a single year, one of the biggest annual rises anywhere in the country. That figure also sits 32% above the provincial average, making it one of the most overheated markets in the entire study.
Torrevieja isn't far behind, with prices averaging €1,858 per square metre and a 16% annual increase. Orihuela is also feeling the pressure, with a 48% purchase effort score and prices up 12.5% year on year. The report specifically flags the Mediterranean coast as home to some of the most strained markets in Spain right now.
Elche is also seeing sharp price growth, with a 15.6% annual increase that puts it among the fastest-rising cities in the country. However, its purchase effort figure of 31% still sits just below the danger threshold, and its average price of €1,529 per square metre remains more accessible than the coastal hotspots.
At the more affordable end of the scale, Alcoy and Elda stand out. Alcoy's average price is €900 per square metre with an affordability ratio of 19%, and Elda comes in at €942 per square metre with a 24% ratio, making both towns a very different proposition for buyers priced out elsewhere.
As we move further into 2026, Alicante province is looking at an increasingly two-speed market, where coastal tourist appeal keeps pushing prices higher and access to housing for ordinary buyers gets tougher.
According to data from Spain's National Statistics Institute, Alicante province recorded 54,767 home sales in 2025, up 4.6% on the 52,364 recorded in 2024. The resale market drove most of that growth, rising from 42,479 to 44,051 transactions, though new-build sales also climbed, from 9,885 to 10,716.
Across the wider Valencian Community, Alicante dominated the market, accounting for 54,767 of the region's 110,591 total transactions in 2025, just under half of all sales. Valencia recorded 41,553 transactions and Castellón 14,271.
Alicante's lead was even more pronounced in the new-build sector, where its 10,716 sales made up more than half of the area's 20,235 new-build transactions, and its share of the existing housing market reached nearly 49%.
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