Parking spaces and storage rooms: Alicante's small brick investment

In Alicante there's a real-estate asset that fits in a car boot, costs less than a hatchback and pays rent every month without midnight phone calls. Nobody advertises it in the shop windows of Rambla de Méndez Núñez. It lives in the basements of Ensanche, behind metal gates and yellow lights that flick on when they sense movement.

It's the parking space. And its smaller sibling, the storage room.

Why this brick exists

Alicante's old town doesn't fit inside itself. Streets like Labradores, Castaños and San Francisco were drawn long before an SUV made sense. When someone buys a flat in Benalúa or a top floor in the Centro Tradicional, the question is not whether they need a parking space. It's where to find one.

On 1 January 2025 Alicante's Low Emission Zone came into force, structured in three rings. The first ring circles the Old Town: Rambla de Méndez Núñez, Avenida de Jaime II, the slope of Santa Bárbara, and Jorge Juan and Altamira streets. In 2025 the zone only gathers data, with no fines. But the direction of travel is clear. Those living inside the perimeter value every square metre of shade for their car as if it were warm gold.

The numbers that matter

The average price of a parking space in Spain hovered around 14,000 euros at the end of 2024, with a range from 10,000 to over 50,000 depending on the city. In Alicante's Ensanche-Diputación, the heart of the nineteenth-century grid, spaces start at 15,500 euros and climb to 31,400 euros for a wide 18-square-metre spot fit for car and motorcycle.

National gross yield on parking spaces moved from 7.1% in 2022 to 6.5% in 2024, and to 6.4% by the end of 2025, according to Fotocasa's annual study. The Valencian Community stays above the average, with a gross 6.9% in 2025. Idealista, using a different methodology, places Alicante city at 4.9% for garages and 6.2% for housing at year-end 2025. It's not a mistake: they are two different measurements of the same phenomenon, and each tells you half the truth.

The full truth is this. A 20,000-euro garage rented for 90 euros a month generates 1,080 euros a year gross, before community fees, IBI property tax and special assessments. After everything, the real figure usually sits at 4.5 to 5.5% net in high-demand central areas. You're not going to get rich. You'll own an asset that rarely sits empty, never catches fire on a Saturday night, and that you can sell with a WhatsApp message when the time comes.

Taxes, no mystery

Buying a second-hand parking space from a private seller means paying the Property Transfer Tax (ITP). In the Valencian Community the general ITP rate in 2025 is 10%. From 1 June 2026, under measures approved by the regional government, the rate drops to 9% for transactions up to 1,000,000 euros, and rises to 11% for higher values.

If the space is new and sold by the developer, you pay VAT at 21%, plus AJD stamp duty, not ITP. That's a difference of several thousand euros on a 25,000-euro deal, and worth clarifying before signing the deposit contract.

Since 1 January 2022 the minimum ITP base is set by the Cadastre's reference value. You can check it on the Cadastre's electronic office with your digital certificate. If you agree a price below the reference value, the tax office will calculate tax on the reference value, not on what the deed says. Thinking about it beforehand saves a complementary assessment afterwards.

The storage room has its own logic. Second-hand pays ITP. New build pays 21% VAT, except when it's sold together with the dwelling, in the same building, in which case the reduced 10% rate applies. These aren't details: they're an 11% swing on the price.

The storage room: less glamour, same logic

Alicante storage rooms trade at more modest prices. In the city centre the purchase price sits around 1,435 euros per square metre, with examples from 2,800 euros for 3 square metres in Altozano up to 10,000 euros for 7 square metres on Avenida de Aguilera. To rent, 2 square metres on Calle Serrano in Ensanche can return 49 euros a month, and 4 square metres on Calle Bailén, near the centre, fetch 39 euros.

Demand doesn't come from tourists: it comes from the neighbour who bought a 70-square-metre flat near the Mercado Central twenty years ago and has run out of space for grandpa's trolley, his son's bicycle and the Christmas boxes. The old town, with its three and four-storey walk-ups, no garage, no service room, devours storage space endlessly.

What the listing doesn't tell you

The parking space has fine print. A central space's community fee runs 15 to 30 euros a month. The IBI tax is small but present. Special assessments, occasional but possible: replacing the garage door can run 400 to 800 euros per space.

Liquidity is limited. A parking space can take three to nine months to sell, longer than a flat in the same area. Spaces that are hard to manoeuvre, near pillars or with narrow doors, get discounted hard on the final price.

Then there's the long game of low-emission zones. Madrid Central, Seville and Barcelona have shown that when a city hall restricts traffic in the centre, garages on the perimeter appreciate (you have to park outside and walk in) and those inside see organic demand drop. Alicante is still in observation phase, but it's worth checking the ring map before signing.

How to choose without fantasies

Three questions before you buy. Can you get in and out without reversing three times? Is there real demand within 300 metres, or do you depend on the sixth-floor neighbour renting from you? Does the community keep the garage up to date, with automatic ramp, LED lighting and cameras, or is it a 1970s basement begging for a million in works?

The small brick won't change your life. It will keep you company. Forty euros here, eighty there, month after month, with no drama. For many Alicante savers, that quiet stability is exactly what they're looking for.

If you'd like to explore parking spaces, storage rooms or homes in Alicante, you can explore our properties or contact us.