Suite Mijas Phase One: new apartments in Mijas from €458,000

The foundations and the frame are reinforced concrete, and an inspection body independent of the builder checked the structure as it went up. The outer walls are brick with two layers of insulation and an air gap between them, lined inside with plasterboard on a metal frame and finished outside in a continuous render in panels of white and grey. Terraces are closed by a mix of solid parapets and glass balustrades. The flat roofs are sealed with two waterproofing membranes and carry a double layer of insulation wherever there are rooms below.

Frames in lacquered aluminium or PVC with a thermal break, which is a strip of insulating material set into the frame so heat does not travel straight through it, double glazed with a sealed gap between the panes. Bedroom windows tilt in at the top or swing on a side hinge, except where the layout wanted a sliding pane, and all of them carry lacquered blinds. Ground floor windows have anti-intrusion protection. The front door is armoured and finished white inside to match the internal doors, and the bedrooms have fitted wardrobes with a hanging rail and a shelf above.

Living rooms, bedrooms and hallways are laid with laminate rated AC4, a hard-wearing grade meant for rooms in daily use, over a layer that deadens the sound of footsteps. Walls are finished in smooth paint. Ceilings are plastered, dropping to a false ceiling only where pipework or ducting has to run above them. The wall between one home and the next is ceramic block lined on both faces with insulated plasterboard, so neither heat nor noise crosses easily.

Handed over fitted, with wall and base units under a laminate worktop, a ceramic hob, an oven, an extractor hood, a metal sink and a single lever tap. Where the kitchen is a room of its own the floor is ceramic stoneware, and where it opens into the living room it carries on in the same laminate as the rest of the home, in a version made to cope with steam and spills. The wall between the two runs of units is finished in the worktop material, with paint or tiling around it.

Walls tiled in ceramic, floors in ceramic stoneware and ceilings painted. The basin and the WC are ceramic and the taps single lever. Whether a bathroom has a bath or a shower tray depends on how much floor the room had to give it.

The air conditioning runs through ducts, reaching the living room and every bedroom through grilles rather than a separate unit fixed to each wall. Hot water is made by an aerothermal installation, which takes warmth out of the outside air and moves it into the tank instead of burning gas. Air is changed continuously by a mechanical ventilation system, so the home stays fresh without the windows being opened. There is a stopcock for the whole home and another in each kitchen and bathroom, and the terraces and private gardens have an outside tap.

The electrical and telecoms work follows the Spanish regulations, putting television and telephone points in the living room, the kitchen and the main bedroom. A door entry phone answers both at the way into the site and at the door of the building.

Insulation wrapped around the whole building, window frames that conduct little heat and sealed double glazing, together with efficient plant and the mechanical ventilation, bring the homes to what the developer calls a reduced consumption standard. Clean energy pre-heats the hot water and the openings in the facade are shaded against the high summer sun. Shared areas are lit by LED fittings that come on as someone walks past. Cisterns flush in two volumes, taps carry aerators that mix air into the flow, rainwater and waste drain separately, and the garage is ducted ahead for electric car charging points.