Costa del Sol or Costa Blanca: how the two coasts compare on flights, weather, prices and tax

This guide compares the Costa del Sol, the coast of Málaga province in Andalucía, with the Costa Blanca, the coast of Alicante province in the Valencian Community. It sets the two side by side on facts that can be checked: the airports, the climate, what a square metre costs, the regional taxes on buying and owning, and what kind of places the towns are. The figures come from Aena, the state weather service AEMET, idealista’s price reports, the national statistics office and the two regions’ own tax laws, each linked where it appears.

I work on the Costa del Sol only. I do not search, value or negotiate on the Costa Blanca, so on that coast this guide gives the published figures and nothing more. The six stretches of the Costa del Sol are compared in where to buy on the Costa del Sol, and each has its own page under areas.

Getting there

Both coasts are built around a large airport. Aena, which runs Spain’s airports, counted 26,760,549 passengers at Málaga-Costa del Sol in 2025 and 19,950,394 at Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández, the fourth and fifth busiest in Spain after Madrid, Barcelona and Palma. Málaga handled 186,990 flights and Alicante 126,081. Valencia airport, which serves the northern end of the Costa Blanca, handled 11,847,527 passengers.

Winter is a fair test of an airport for a second home. In January 2026 Málaga handled 1,440,294 passengers, with the British market the largest at 254,263. On the Costa del Sol the airport also has its own railway station, on the C-1 line through Torremolinos and Benalmádena to Fuengirola.

The climate

AEMET publishes long-run averages for its stations at Málaga airport and Alicante-Elche airport. Its published tables cover 1981 to 2010.

The temperatures are almost the same. Málaga’s winter nights are about a degree milder, and its rain is concentrated in late autumn and winter, when it gets more than three times as much as Alicante. The newer averages for 1991 to 2020, which AEMET supplies to the agriculture ministry’s statistical yearbook, keep the same picture: a mean of 18.9°C at Málaga and 18.6°C at Alicante, with 512 mm of rain against 282 mm.

What a square metre costs

idealista publishes asking prices by province and town each month. For September 2026, Alicante province asked €2,767 a square metre, up 7.8% in a year, and Málaga province €4,317, up 6.6%. Both figures include inland towns.

The Costa del Sol column is the set of 2026 averages, based on idealista, that I use across this site. The Costa Blanca column is idealista’s own report for September 2026. On those figures Jávea and Moraira ask about what Benalmádena, Torremolinos and Estepona ask, and Torrevieja asks less than half of Marbella’s average. On the Costa del Sol the new builds that start lowest are listed under new developments under €300,000, mostly in Las Lagunas, Los Pacos and the towns east of Málaga.

The regional taxes

The taxes on buying and owning a home are partly set by each region, and here the two coasts differ. Andalucía’s rules are in its tax law, Ley 5/2021. The Valencian Community’s are in Ley 13/1997, whose consolidated text was last updated in August 2026, as changed most recently by Ley 5/2026, in force since 11 August 2026.

On a €350,000 new build bought as a second home, the taxes come to €39,200 in Andalucía, 10% VAT and 1.2% stamp duty, and €39,900 in the Valencian Community. Bought as a main home in the Valencian Community, the stamp duty falls to €350 and the total to €35,350.

Both regions have lower rates for some buyers of a main home. Andalucía’s reduced stamp duty, 1% in general, applies only to a main home worth up to €150,000, so the Valencian 0.1% on any main home is the larger relief for a resident buying new. Andalucía has also announced a cut in its transfer tax to 6.75% from 2027, set out in the 2027 transfer tax guide. The full sum of buying on the Costa del Sol is worked in what a €350,000 apartment really costs.

On income tax, the regional scales cross at about €55,500 of taxable income. On the regional scale alone, before allowances, €30,000 comes to €3,542 in Andalucía and €3,394 in the Valencian Community. At €100,000 it is €17,910 against €19,264, and at €250,000 €51,660 against €61,789. How the Valencian wealth tax rules apply to an owner who lives abroad is a question for a tax adviser. Andalucía’s rebate reaches non-residents too, as wealth tax in Spain and why Andalucía is different explains. The tax a non-resident pays each year on a home they do not let, Modelo 210, is national and the same on both coasts.

Day-to-day costs

The national statistics office’s household budget survey for 2025 puts average spending at €12,197.02 a person a year in Andalucía and €13,703.50 in the Valencian Community, against €14,065.81 for Spain. Food and soft drinks came to €2,149.37 a person in Andalucía and €2,245.08 in the Valencian Community. Prices are rising at much the same pace in both: annual inflation in September 2026 was 4.7% in Andalucía and 4.8% in the Valencian Community. What a month on the Costa del Sol costs, line by line, is in the cost of living guide.

The kind of town

The 2021 census counts how many homes in each town are someone’s main home, in the INE’s table by municipality. The rest are second homes, holiday lets and empty homes. On this measure the two coasts are built differently.

• Costa del Sol. Málaga 83%, Fuengirola 69%, Torremolinos 68%, Benalmádena 61%, Marbella 56%, Estepona 55%, Mijas 54%.
• Costa Blanca. Alicante 72%, La Vila Joiosa 56%, Altea 51%, Benidorm 49%, Jávea 44%, Dénia 39%, Calp 38%, Orihuela 36%, Pilar de la Horadada 36%, Santa Pola 33%, Torrevieja 30%, Guardamar del Segura 27%.

On the central Costa del Sol, most homes are someone’s main home. In much of the southern Costa Blanca, most homes are not. By the population register for 1 January 2025, Torrevieja had 98,533 registered residents, Benidorm 77,327 and Alicante 366,221, against Málaga’s 599,063, Marbella’s 159,786 and Fuengirola’s 85,211 on Málaga’s register. Both coasts are growing. Between 2021 and 2025 Torrevieja’s registered population rose by 18.9% and Alicante’s by 8.6%, while Estepona’s rose by 10.7% and Benalmádena’s by 11.6%. What the Costa del Sol towns are like in the quiet months is set out in the Costa del Sol in winter.

Who each coast suits

The Costa del Sol suits a buyer who wants the busier of the two airports with a train from it, central towns that are lived in all year, a choice of around twenty-five international schools between Sotogrande and Nerja, listed in the international schools guide, and Andalucía’s lower taxes on a resale purchase and on wealth. It costs more per square metre, and its winters are wetter.

On the published figures, the Costa Blanca suits a buyer for whom the price of a square metre comes first, or who wants a drier climate, and whose income sits below the point where the Valencian income tax scale rises above Andalucía’s. Beyond those figures, the Costa Blanca is for someone who works there to assess.

How I handle it

When a buyer tells me they are weighing the two coasts, I set out the Costa del Sol side as fully as I can: the towns that fit the budget, what a home of the size they want costs in each, the drive or the train to the airport, the schools if there are children, and the full cost of buying and owning, so the comparison they make is with real figures on this side.

I do not give a view on the Costa Blanca market, because I do not work there. What I can do is make sure the Costa del Sol half of the decision is done properly. If that would help, book a call. Buying with me sets out how I work.

Common questions