How long a Costa Blanca renovation really takes

The question we are asked most often at the start of a project is how long the work will take. The honest answer is that the building works are rarely the longest part. On the Costa Blanca, preparation and permissions set the pace, and projects that begin well tend to finish well.

A realistic programme

• Design and scope: 4 to 10 weeks to define the work in enough detail to be priced accurately.
• Permissions: a declaración responsable or obra menor route is often cleared in 2 to 8 weeks. A licencia de obra mayor commonly takes 3 to 6 months, and longer in the busier town halls along the coast.
• Tendering: 3 to 6 weeks to gather comparable quotations and appoint the right contractor.
• On site: 8 to 14 weeks for a cosmetic refresh, 5 to 9 months for a full modernisation with layout changes and new services.
• Completion: 2 to 4 weeks for snagging, certificates, cleaning and handover.

Taken together, a kitchen and bathroom refresh is often a 4 to 6 month exercise from first conversation to finished home. A full villa modernisation is realistically 9 to 15 months. August slows almost everything, and imported joinery, tiles and sanitaryware regularly carry lead times of 6 to 12 weeks.

The costs that sit alongside the build

• Construction: broadly 700 to 1,200 euros per m² for a good quality refurbishment, 1,200 to 1,900 euros per m² where structure, services and finishes are all renewed, and above that for high specification work.
• Architect and technical team on a licenced project: usually 6 to 10% of the construction value, plus 21% IVA.
• ICIO, the municipal construction tax: typically 2 to 4% of the assessed works value, depending on the town hall.
• Licence fee (tasa urbanística): commonly a further 0.5 to 1% of the works value.
• Health and safety coordination and the final certificate on larger works: often 1,000 to 3,000 euros.
• Contingency: we advise 10 to 15% on any renovation of an older Costa Blanca property, where what sits behind the plaster is rarely fully known.

IVA on renovation work is 21% as standard, though 10% can apply to qualifying refurbishment of a home that has been built and occupied for more than two years, where the contractor supplies materials within defined limits. It is worth confirming with your contractor and adviser before quotations are compared, because the difference is material.

Where schedules are usually lost

Delays rarely come from a single dramatic problem. They come from decisions taken late, scope agreed loosely, or materials specified after the trade needed them. When an owner is abroad, a small unanswered question can hold a site still for days at a time.

Protecting the programme

We keep the scope defined, decisions ahead of the trades, and someone on the ground to see what is actually happening. Owners receive regular updates with photographs, so being in another country does not mean being out of touch. It is a calmer way to renovate, and usually a faster one. Figures here are planning ranges drawn from projects along the Jávea, Dénia, Moraira and Altea stretch of the coast; municipal taxes and rates vary, so we confirm them per project.