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Foreigners set to outnumber Spaniards in Costa Blanca city of Torrevieja

A growing number of Brits, Ukrainians and Russians in the Costa Blanca beach resort of Torrevieja means foreigners will soon outnumber locals, 2023 city hall data shows, the latest example of Alicante province's popularity among internationals.

Published: 5 February 2024 11:00 CET
Foreigners set to outnumber Spaniards in Costa Blanca city of Torrevieja
The number of foreign residents in Torrevieja is set to outnumber locals. Photo: Frames for your Heart / Unsplash

According to data provided by the Department of Census and Statistics at the Torrevieja City Council, the total number of foreign residents in this town in Alicante province is 49,944 compared to 50,477 Spaniards.

This means that out of the 100,421 registered on the Padrón, almost half or 49.74 percent are foreigners.

Data shows that they hail from 122 different countries, but the majority are from Ukraine, Russia and the UK.

READ ALSO: Foreigners account for almost 100% of Spain’s population increase

There are 7,650 residents from Ukraine, 5,837 from Russia and 4,912 from the United Kingdom.

Since January 2023, a total of 1,879 new Ukrainians and 905 Russians have also been registered in the city.

Behind these are Colombian residents, with 4,360 registered residents, Moroccans with 2,473, followed by Swedes (1,677), Romanians (1,604), Bulgarians (1,524), Belgians (1,474), Italians (1,246), Germans (1,159), Algerians (982), Poles (909), Chinese (830), Brazilians (803), Argentinians (777), Norwegians (667), Venezuelans (664) Finns (622), French (621), Belarusians (582), Lithuanians (559), Indians (533), Dutch (529), Cubans (447) and Irish (384).

Figures from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) are slightly different, but they only have data available from January 2022, meaning that it’s highly likely they will be much lower than the current numbers. It lists a total of 89,290 people registered in Torrevieja in 2022. Of these, 33,961 were foreigners and 49,586 were Spaniards.

READ ALSO – Beat the crowds: 10 hidden beaches and coves along Spain’s Costa Blanca

Torrevieja was also the city with the greatest relative population growth in 2022 in the whole of Spain at 6,8+ percent and the city with the greatest proportion of foreigners at 40.7 percent.

Given the high numbers of Ukrainians and Russians who moved to the city in 2023, it’s likely that these figures will indeed be similar to those from Torrevieja City Council.

Some people believe, however, that at certain times of the year, foreigners already outnumber locals because of the number of second homeowners in the area.

Many of these people spend three to six months in Torrevieja, preferring to see out the winters in a milder and warmer climate and then returning home during the hot, busy summers. Of course, these are replaced by tourists who flock here in the summer holidays.

The Costa Blanca, and particularly Alicante province, is one most popular places for foreign residents in the whole of Spain. According to INE data from 2022, it was the fourth most popular province behind Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.

Data from that same year also shows that 40 percent of homes sold to foreign buyers in Spain were located in Alicante province.

Foreigners are attracted to Torrevieja because of its excellent weather, mild winters and excellent beaches. In fact, the Alicante province as a whole has a total of 74 Blue Flag beaches recognised for their great water quality.

Torrevieja is also only a 45-minute drive from Alicante airport, making it easily accessible.

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RENTING

Do I have to pay the estate agent a commission if I rent in Spain?

Who has to pay the real estate agent commission (usually equivalent to one month's rent) in Spain: the landlord or the new tenant? And are there exceptions to the rules or underhand tricks agents use to get tenants to cough up more money?

Published: 24 April 2024 10:16 CEST
Updated: 27 April 2024 15:03 CEST
Do I have to pay the estate agent a commission if I rent in Spain?

Up until 2023, the general rule in Spain was that both the landlord and the tenant would both have to pay estate agency fees when a rental contract was processed through them, although in some cases it was just the arrendatario (tenant) rather than the arrendador (landlord) who had to foot most of this commission.

Tenants often had the sense they weren’t getting much in return out of it, as it was common to find apartments hadn’t been cleaned, filled with broken furniture and other appliances that weren’t working.

On top of a commission to the agency equal to one month of rent, tenants had to pay one to two month’s deposit and a month’s rent, meaning they had to pay a total of three to four months’ worth of fees upfront, which would rack up to a lot of money. 

READ ALSO: The cities in Spain where people fight most over a place to rent 

Thankfully, Spain’s housing law, brought into force in May 2023, put an end to this and now it’s solely down to the landlord to pay the agency fee as they’re the ones who hired them.

The law, which modified part of the Urban Leasing Law of 1994, now states: “The expenses of real estate management and formalisation of the contract will be borne by the lessor,” that is, the owner of the property.

READ ALSO – Renting in Spain: Can my partner move in with me?

One of the main problems is that agencies have been doing this for so long that they stand to lose quite a bit of money and may continue to ask tenants to pay on the side. 

Alejandro Fuentes-Lojo, a lawyer specialised in real estate law explained to Spanish news site Newtral: “Many professionals will try to circumvent this prohibition, and in some cases they will try to make the tenant pay out of pocket, but we must warn that if they agree, they will be unprotected by the law”.

Be aware, even though tenants shouldn’t have to pay the full agency fees anymore, there are certain circumstances in which they may still have to pay something.

The Rental Negotiating Agency (ANA), states that there are a series of exceptional cases where real estate agencies can pass some of these expenses on to tenants, specifically when they are offered a series of additional services that directly benefit them.

These expenses could include house cleaning services at the end of the lease, repair services and legal advice during the duration of the contract, or other services where it can be proven that they have a direct benefit for the tenants. These expenses can only be collected after the contracts are signed.

READ ALSO – Q&A: When can you legally leave a rental property in Spain? 

The general director of ANA and a lawyer specialised in leasing, José Ramón Zurdo, states: “The new Housing Law does not regulate or limit the impact of expenses that accrue after the signing of the contracts, because the limit of expenses that can be passed on is closed after this time”.

According to the new housing law, expenses that can’t be passed on to the tenant include management expenses charged by real estate agencies for intermediating, searching for tenants and showing the homes. Tenants can also not be charged for expenses of formalising contracts or paying any lawyers or notaries involved.

There are also four exceptional cases where agencies can still charge fees to tenants, when they are not habitual residence leases and, therefore, are not regulated by the Urban Leases Law.

These include:

  • Tourist accommodation
  • Rental of commercial or office space
  • Seasonal rentals
  • Luxury housing leases – Properties whose surface area exceeds 300 m2 built, or whose rent exceeds the interprofessional minimum wage by 5.5 times.

READ ALSO: Spanish court rules buyer can purchase property directly from seller without paying agency fees

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