How to Prepare a Costa Blanca Holiday Home
Preparing a Costa Blanca holiday home comes down to four jobs: stop moisture and salt doing damage while the place is empty, service the systems that fail quietly (water, electrics, air conditioning), fix the building envelope before the rainy season, and check the paperwork if you plan to let it. Do them in that order and most of the expensive surprises disappear.
This guide is written for owners in Torrevieja, Orihuela Costa, Ciudad Quesada and the wider Vega Baja who spend only part of the year in Spain, or who live abroad altogether.
Key Takeaways
Damp and salt air are the main enemies of an empty coastal home: plan ventilation, dehumidifying and a local key-holder before you leave.
Service the air conditioning, check the water heater and shut off water at the mains before long absences.
Repair terraces, roofs and façades before the autumn rains, not after the first stain appears.
Minor works in Torrevieja need a municipal licence or declaration, and holiday lets need tourist registration.
Ask for a phased written quote and regular photo updates if you manage the work from abroad.
Table of Contents
Start with an honest survey of the property
Before you buy furniture or book a cleaner, find out what the building is actually like. Older properties on the Costa Blanca often have incomplete original documentation, which makes the first assessment more important, as this renovation guide points out. A Dutch agency’s note on common building defects on the Costa Blanca also recommends a structural check, for instance by bringing an architect to a second viewing, because the survey culture here differs from northern Europe.
Walk the property with a notebook and look at:
Walls and ceilings: stains, blistering paint, salt deposits (a white powder), musty corners.
Terrace and roof: cracked tiles, open joints, ponding water, failed waterproofing membrane.
Windows and doors: swollen frames, worn seals, corroded hinges and locks.
Plumbing: low pressure, slow drains, old galvanised pipes, the age of the water heater.
Electrics: old fuse boxes, missing earth protection, sockets that are warm or discoloured.
Flooring and joinery: lifted boards, swollen wardrobe backs, rust on fittings.
If you are still at the buying stage, our note on four checks before buying a property to renovate covers what to ask for before you sign.
Damp, salt and closed windows: the empty-house problem
An empty coastal home is a harder environment than an occupied one. SunSail’s guide to humidity in empty Costa Blanca homes describes how coastal humidity, salt air and permanently closed windows combine to produce mould, musty rooms and corroded fittings, quietly and behind closed doors. The problem is worst for owners who are away for weeks or months.
The measures that a Costa Blanca residents’ magazine lists as most effective are simple and cheap: ventilate fully several times a day when you are there rather than leaving windows tilted, use electric dehumidifiers in bedrooms and bathrooms, keep temperatures stable, leave 5 to 10 cm between furniture and external walls, and keep boxes and rugs off ground-floor tiles. The same source stresses that rising damp is only solved by structural work; surface coatings are temporary.
Pro Tip: Before you leave, empty the fridge, prop its door open, and store bedding in sealed bags or boxes rather than leaving it in open wardrobes. Fabrics and leather are the first things to smell of mould.
When the cause is the building, not the habits
Ventilation helps with condensation. It does nothing for water entering through a failed terrace membrane, a cracked façade render or an unsealed window junction. If stains return in the same place every autumn, the cause is almost certainly constructional. We explain what to demand from a contractor in our guide to coastal renovation and CTE moisture details. In practice, the fix usually involves proper impermeabilisation of the terrace or roof, correct falls to drain water away, cavity ventilation where the wall construction allows it, and corrosion-resistant fixings such as AISI 316 stainless steel near the sea.
Water, electrics and air conditioning
These three systems cause most emergency call-outs in unoccupied homes, and all three are cheap to check before you leave.
Plumbing
Close the main stopcock whenever you leave for more than a few days. A burst flexible hose in an empty flat can flood the unit below.
Replace rubber washing-machine and tap hoses that are more than a few years old.
Check the electric water heater for limescale and leaks, and switch it off when you are away.
Run every tap and flush every toilet on arrival to clear stagnant water.
If something does fail, our guide to the first 48 hours after a burst pipe in Spain lists safe temporary fixes. Our team also handles plumbing, leak detection and 24/7 emergency repairs in Torrevieja and the Vega Baja.
Electrics
Have an electrician check the consumer unit, earth protection and any circuits that were added over the years. In an older flat, a tripping switch in summer is usually a warning that the installation has been extended beyond what it was designed for. Leave only the fridge circuit, if you use one, and the alarm live while you are away, and switch off the rest at the board.
Air conditioning
A 2026 holiday home maintenance checklist for Spain recommends professional attention before the summer heat: deep-cleaning filters and checking refrigerant levels. Do the same before you let the property or arrive for the season, because a unit that was last used in September will often fail in July, when every technician is booked.
Check the envelope before the rains
The Costa Blanca is dry for much of the year, which is exactly why owners forget the roof. Autumn storms then arrive and find every weakness at once. Put these on your list for September or October:
Terraces and flat roofs: inspect the membrane at upstands, drains and joints. Hairline cracks in tiled terraces let water through to the ceiling below.
Façade: look for cracked render, spalling concrete and rusting balcony rails.
Gutters and downpipes: clear leaves, sand and nests.
Window and door seals: replace hardened silicone and brittle gaskets.
Pro Tip: Photograph any existing stain with a date, then check it after the first heavy rain. Whether it has grown tells you if the leak is active.
Permits: when the work needs the town hall
Repainting and furnishing do not need a licence. Changing layouts, replacing a bathroom, altering a façade or building a pool usually does. The rules and forms differ by municipality. Torrevieja’s town hall lists a declaración responsable for works, minor works licence, major works licence and occupancy declarations on its planning pages, and its minor works licence page asks for a copy of your ID or passport and a written and graphic description of the work, with the application handled online or in person by appointment. Alicante city runs its own procedure, so a property in another municipality needs that town hall’s rules, not Torrevieja’s.
Community of owners’ rules also matter in apartment blocks: façade colour, terrace enclosures and air-conditioning units on shared walls are often restricted. Check your statutes before you order anything. We cover the approval chain in more detail in our article on renovating a Spanish property from abroad.
If you plan to let the property
Preparing for guests is different from preparing for yourself. In the Valencian Community, tourist dwellings must show their registration number from the regional tourism registry in their advertising, display a distinctive vinyl sign, and need an urban compatibility report before they can be registered. Confirm the current requirements with the town hall and the regional tourism administration before you spend on furnishings, because a refusal on planning grounds makes the investment pointless.
For a let, the renovation priorities shift:
Priority | Owner use | Holiday let |
Air conditioning | Useful | Essential, serviced yearly |
Bathroom | Comfortable | Walk-in shower, easy to clean, non-slip |
Kitchen | Basic | Durable surfaces, enough storage |
Flooring | Any | Hard-wearing, easy to maintain |
Wardrobes | Optional | Fitted, with space for luggage |
Key handover | You | Lockbox or local key-holder |
A realistic preparation timeline
Three to six months before arrival
Survey the property and list every defect.
Request written, phased quotes for anything structural, plumbing or electrical.
Check licences and community rules.
One to three months before
Carry out the dirty work: waterproofing, plastering, electrics, plumbing, then flooring, joinery and painting, in that order.
Book the air-conditioning service.
Final two weeks
Deep clean, restock, test every appliance.
Set up a dehumidifier schedule and a key-holder for the next absence.
The order matters: painting before the plumber has opened a wall means painting twice. Our five-stage guide to home renovation in Torrevieja sets out the usual sequence of stages, permits and coastal cost drivers.
Managing work when you are not there
Most of our clients own a second home and cannot supervise daily. What makes remote work reliable is process, not trust alone:
A written quote broken into phases, so you pay against completed stages.
A fixed completion date in the contract.
Regular photo and video updates, so you see the work behind the walls before it is closed.
A single point of contact who speaks your language.
Confirmation that the contractor is insured and that the work complies with regulations.
When you compare firms, shortlist three to five and ask about salt-air detailing and permits; our guide to choosing a renovation company in Torrevieja lists the questions.
Our perspective: prepare the building first, the interiors second
We see the same pattern every year. An owner spends on new sofas and a kitchen refresh, then the first autumn storm stains the bedroom ceiling because the terrace above was never re-waterproofed. In our experience on the Costa Blanca, the weakest link fails first: a corroded hinge, a cracked joint, a tired hose. A good-looking interior only lasts if the envelope, the pipes and the wiring behind it are sound.
So we recommend a fixed order. First, diagnose: damp, leaks, electrics. Second, correct the cause, not the symptom. Third, finish: flooring, carpentry, paint and interior design. We manage all the trades under one contract, with a free detailed phased quote, set pricing and deadlines, and regulatory compliance, which is what makes a project manageable from another country.
— URU Reformas
Let us prepare your home for you
If you would rather hand over the whole list, we handle full and partial renovations, façades, kitchens, bathrooms and roof waterproofing, with plumbing, electrical, carpentry and painting in-house. You can see examples of our work and contact us for a free consultation and quote.
FAQ
When is the best time to prepare a holiday home on the Costa Blanca?
Late spring suits air-conditioning and electrical work, and September or October suits roofs, terraces and façades, before the autumn rain. Avoid booking major works in July and August, when trades and materials are busiest and many owners are in residence.
How do I stop mould in a house I leave empty?
Reduce humidity and keep air moving: dehumidifiers, furniture away from external walls, nothing stored directly on tiles, and someone to open the windows regularly. If mould returns in the same spot, look for a building fault such as a leak or failed waterproofing rather than only cleaning the surface.
Do I need a licence to renovate my holiday home in Torrevieja?
Painting generally does not, but works that change layout, structure or the exterior usually do, and the type of procedure depends on the scale. Check the planning procedures on the Torrevieja town hall website, or ask your contractor to confirm before work starts.
Can I manage a renovation from abroad?
Yes, provided you have a phased written quote, a fixed schedule, photo and video updates and one local contact. Visit at least once at the key stages if you can, and keep every document in writing.
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