Guardamar

Guardamar del Segura: A Buyer's Guide

  A rare stretch of the Costa Blanca where an 800-hectare pine forest meets eleven kilometres of golden Blue Flag sand, and where a real, year-round Spanish town has quietly become home to thousands of British, Irish and Northern European families.

At a glance:  11 km of Blue Flag beaches  ·  around 30 minutes to Alicante airport  ·  population about 18,500 (roughly 40% foreign)  ·  around 3,000 hours of sun a year.

Why Guardamar del Segura is different

Most coastal towns on the southern Costa Blanca grew up around tourism. Guardamar grew up around its dunes. More than a century ago the town faced being slowly buried by drifting sand, so between 1900 and 1930 some 800 hectares were planted with stone pine, palm, eucalyptus and cypress to hold the coast in place. That forest, the Alfonso XIII park, is now the defining feature of the area and the reason Guardamar feels unlike anywhere else on this coast: you can lie on the sand with a pine woodland rustling thirty metres behind you.

For a foreign buyer, the practical upshot is a town that feels authentically Spanish and lived-in rather than a seasonal resort that empties in October. There is a working high street, a Wednesday market, a marina, schools full of local children, and a permanent community that simply happens to be very international. Around four in ten residents are from outside Spain, so newcomers tend to settle in easily without feeling they have moved into a bubble.

Location and getting around

Genuinely well connected, in every direction

Guardamar sits at the mouth of the River Segura, roughly midway between Santa Pola to the north and Torrevieja to the south, with the inland towns of Ciudad Quesada and Rojales a short drive away. The position is one of its quiet strengths.

• Alicante-Elche Airport is about 30 to 40 minutes by car on the N-332 and AP-7, which matters enormously when family and friends are flying in from the UK and Ireland.
• Murcia-Corvera Airport is around 45 minutes to the south, giving a useful second set of routes.
• The N-332 coastal road and the AP-7 motorway put Alicante city, Cartagena and the wider region within easy reach for work, hospitals and days out.
• Regular buses link the town to the airport and neighbouring towns, and the nearest mainline rail runs on the Alicante–Elche–Orihuela–Murcia line.

For buyers weighing up where on the coast to settle, this combination of beach-front living with a half-hour airport run is one of the most compelling arguments for Guardamar.

The beaches and the great outdoors

Eleven kilometres of coast, and a forest behind it

Guardamar's coastline runs for roughly eleven kilometres of fine golden sand, and several of its beaches hold the Blue Flag for water quality and facilities. The central Playa Centro, opposite the promenade, is the family favourite, with gentle shelving water, lifeguards in season, beach bars and cafés a two-minute walk away. Further along you will find quieter stretches such as La Roqueta for morning walks and the wilder, dune-backed Moncayo.

Behind the sand, the Alfonso XIII pine park offers shaded walking and cycling paths, calisthenics areas and picnic spots, alive with squirrels, ducks and the occasional peacock. The Marina de las Dunas, with close to 500 moorings at the river mouth, adds sailing and a couple of kilometres of calm, navigable river for paddleboarding and small craft. Add the nearby Laguna de la Mata nature reserve for birdwatching and you have a town built around an active, outdoor life, helped along by around 3,000 hours of sunshine a year.

A quick word on the seasons.  Summer is warm and busy, with July and August around 30°C. Many buyers actually prefer spring and autumn, when the days are still in the low to mid twenties and the beaches and parks are calm. Winters are mild, which is exactly why so many residents stay all year rather than only in season.

Lifestyle: who Guardamar suits

For families

Guardamar is a safe, walkable town with parks, playgrounds, sports facilities and a strong local school network, with international-friendly schooling available in the wider Vega Baja area. The family-friendly Reina Sofía park, with its waterfalls, shaded walks and ducks, is a favourite weekend spot. Most residential homes come with a terrace or garden and sit quietly back from the seafront while staying close to the centre.

For retirees and second-home owners

The mild climate, flat and walkable centre, good healthcare access and genuine year-round community make Guardamar a long-standing favourite for those buying a place in the sun to enjoy for the long term. The strong foreign community means English is widely spoken, while the Spanish character of the town remains intact.

For professionals and remote workers

With Alicante reachable in well under an hour and reliable connectivity, a growing number of buyers split their time between remote work and the coast. Local cafés, the marina and the promenade make for a pleasant base, and the airport proximity keeps you connected to the rest of Europe.

For food and culture lovers

The Wednesday street market fills the lanes between the town hall and the castle, and the famous Sunday market at El Raso draws crowds from across the area. Guardamar's restaurants lean into fresh Mediterranean cooking and the local catch, and the town's deep history, from the Phoenician site of La Fonteta and the Moorish Rábita to the celebrated Dama de Guardamar in the archaeological museum, gives it a cultural weight that many resort towns simply do not have.

The Guardamar property market

What your money buys, and what really moves the price

Guardamar offers an unusually broad range of homes for a town its size: modern beachside and town-centre apartments, townhouses, penthouses with solariums and sea views, and detached villas in the surrounding urbanisations such as El Raso and the Campo de Guardamar. Average prices have tended to sit broadly in line with the city of Alicante, with the more affordable stock set back from the front and the premium homes closer to the beach or the marina.

As a guide, here is the kind of spread currently available through Sunshine Homes:

As with any new build or resale, the headline figure is only the start. Orientation, floor level, view, terrace size and distance to the sand can move the price of two otherwise identical homes by tens of thousands of euros. That is exactly the detail we help buyers see clearly before they travel.

A note on buying costs.   Guardamar is in the Alicante region of the Valencian Community, where resale purchase tax (ITP) is charged on top of the price at 9%, alongside notary, registry and legal fees, while new builds carry IVA (VAT) and stamp duty (AJD) instead at 10%. We always recommend taking advice from a qualified independent Spanish lawyer before you commit, and being especially careful with off-plan contracts and stage payments. We are happy to introduce you to recommended local solicitors, and the choice of who advises you is always yours.

Price growth and market benchmarks

What the numbers say about the last five years

Guardamar has tracked the wider southern Costa Blanca, which has been one of the stronger-performing coastal markets in Europe since the post-2015 recovery. As a rough guide, average coastal Costa Blanca values rose from around €1,500 per square metre in 2015 to comfortably above €2,200 by 2025, with the Alicante province posting double-digit annual growth at the 2025 peak. The figures below give a sense of the trend. They are drawn from public asking-price indices, which vary between sources and sit above final sold prices, so treat them as direction of travel rather than a valuation.

• Around 2019: Guardamar averaged roughly €1,840 per square metre (asking).
• Early 2025: Guardamar averaged roughly €2,340 per square metre (asking).
• Mid-2025 peak: Alicante province was up about 15.9% year on year.

Sources: idealista, indomio and INE / CaixaBank regional data, 2019 to 2025. Asking prices; final sold prices are typically lower.

The broad picture across the five years to 2025: a steady climb of roughly four to five per cent a year in the calmer periods, accelerating sharply in 2024 and 2025 as foreign demand returned in force and the supply of quality new build in prime spots stayed tight. In Guardamar specifically, the priciest stock sits near the beach, the marina and the town centre, while the most affordable is set back in neighbourhoods such as Las Viñas and Buenavista. International buyers now make up roughly half of the local market.

New build versus resale: a benchmark

The two parts of the market behave differently and carry different costs. This is the honest comparison we walk buyers through:

Total acquisition costs on the Costa Blanca generally run around 11 to 15 per cent above the purchase price once tax, notary, registry and legal fees are included. Tax rates and reliefs change, so confirm current figures with your lawyer.

What this means for a buyer.  Resale gives you an established location and a quicker, often cheaper, entry. New build gives you modern efficiency, developer guarantees and lower running costs, usually at a premium per square metre. Neither is automatically the better buy. It depends on your budget, timescale and how you intend to use the home, which is exactly the conversation we are here to have with you. You can compare both live: pre-owned in Guardamar and new build in Guardamar.

Why buy in Guardamar with Sunshine Homes

We are an independent agency working right across the Costa Blanca South, with deep local knowledge of Guardamar and the surrounding Vega Baja. Rather than pushing a fixed stock list, we start with what suits you and then find it across the market, including new build developments that are never advertised on the portals. From the first conversation through viewings, negotiation, the legal process and key handover, you have one honest point of contact who knows the area and is working for you.

You can browse all Guardamar listings, explore our new build developments in Guardamar, or get in touch to start a tailored search. Selling instead? Request a free property valuation.

Guardamar buyer questions, answered

Where is Guardamar and how far is the airport?

Guardamar del Segura is on the southern Costa Blanca in Alicante province, at the mouth of the River Segura between Santa Pola and Torrevieja. Alicante-Elche Airport is about 30 to 40 minutes by car via the N-332 and AP-7, and Murcia-Corvera Airport is roughly 45 minutes to the south.

Is Guardamar a good place for foreign buyers?

It is one of the most established choices on this coast. The permanent population is around 18,500, a large share of whom are foreign residents, mainly British, Irish and Northern European. You get a genuine year-round community, Blue Flag beaches, healthcare, schooling nearby and a relaxed Spanish town rather than a purely seasonal resort.

What does property cost in Guardamar del Segura?

Expect two-bedroom apartments from around the low €200,000s, rising to penthouses and villas approaching €700,000 and beyond. Average prices have been broadly comparable to the city of Alicante. The right figure depends heavily on the specific unit, its orientation, floor and distance to the beach, so it is best confirmed with an agent against live availability.

What is there to do all year round?

Beaches, the 800-hectare Alfonso XIII pine forest for walking and cycling, the Marina de las Dunas, water sports on the navigable river, the Wednesday town market, golf within a short drive, and a rich layer of archaeology and museums. With around 3,000 hours of sun a year, outdoor life carries on through the winter.

Is Guardamar better than Torrevieja or Orihuela Costa?

It depends on what you want. Guardamar is greener, quieter and more traditionally Spanish, with its pine forest and dunes. Torrevieja is larger and livelier with more nightlife and shopping, while Orihuela Costa is built around international urbanisations and golf. Many buyers compare all three, and we are happy to talk you through the trade-offs honestly.

Thinking about Guardamar?

Let us bring you a genuine shortlist of Guardamar homes that fit what you are actually looking for, with the real price and the full picture before you ever step on a plane.

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Explore more Costa Blanca area guides

  Torrevieja   ·   Ciudad Quesada   ·   Orihuela Costa   ·   Benijófar   ·    Los Alcázares   ·   Santa Rosalía    ·   La Finca   ·   Pilar de la Horadada   ·   San Miguel de Salinas