Renovating a resale home in Alicante: the map of the process

The keys fit. You open the door and the apartment welcomes you with that closed-up scent only Alicante's older homes have: wood, lime, a distant echo of cooking. The baseboards are scuffed. The bathroom has waited twenty years. The kitchen is yellow.

And still, it is yours.

Now comes the part few people mention. Transforming a resale home means speaking three languages at once. The builder's, the town hall's, and money's. None of them are optional.

Minor works, major works: where your project lands

The first question is not what tiles you want. It is what kind of work you are doing. The law splits the world in two.

Minor works do not touch structure, do not modify the facade, do not alter essential layout. Repainting, updating a kitchen without moving walls, changing fixtures, renewing floors, replacing windows within the existing opening. In Alicante this is processed through the declaración responsable de obra menor, form 19.1-N of the town hall.

Major works are on another level. Knocking down load-bearing walls, expanding surface area, opening new gaps in the facade, changing the use of the property. They require a major works licence, a technical project signed by an architect and, often, on-site supervision.

The boundary is not always clear. A partition can be load-bearing. A facade opening can be historic. If in doubt, before paying the crew, ask the planning department.

The responsible declaration: immediate effect, your accountability

The declaración responsable de obra menor works like this. You submit form 19.1-N with full documentation and it takes effect immediately from its registration at the Alicante town hall. You do not wait for anyone to authorise you.

In exchange, you answer for the fact that everything complies. That the wall you plan to knock down is not structural, that you do not affect the facade, that the building is not listed. If you are wrong, the town hall can open a file, halt the work and require you to restore what was demolished.

The deadlines are strict. You have 3 months to start works from acquiring the right and 6 months to complete them once started. After that window, the authorisation expires. If the work runs long, you request an extension.

And an important detail. Filing the declaration does not give you access to water and electricity supply. That goes separately, via the electrical certificate and the plumber's installation certificate.

The taxes that do not appear in the contractor's invoice

Renovating in Alicante brings two taxes that land in parallel with the construction budget.

The ICIO (Tax on Constructions, Installations and Works) is charged by the town hall. In Alicante the applicable rate is 4% on the real and effective cost of the work, with a reference budget (PEM) around 586 €/m² per the current fiscal ordinance. The contractor does not pay it. You do.

VAT is the other. Here there is good news. The Spanish tax agency allows reduced 10% VAT on renovation and repair works on homes when three conditions apply simultaneously:

• The home is used for the personal purposes of an individual or a community of owners.
• At least two years have passed since construction ended or since the last rehabilitation.
• The materials supplied by the contractor do not exceed 40% of the taxable base of the transaction.

If one of these fails, VAT jumps to 21%. On a 60,000 euro renovation the difference is 6,600 euros in one stroke. The contractor will ask you to sign a declaration certifying you meet all three. Keep that paper safe. It is the proof.

The real budget per square metre

The figures circulating in 2026 across Alicante province draw three clear quality bands.

A mid-lower renovation, with standard finishes and decent but unremarkable materials, runs between 400 and 600 euros per square metre. A 90-square-metre apartment sits between 36,000 and 54,000 euros.

The mid-upper band, with better-designed kitchens, higher-quality joinery and some detail such as aerothermal systems or invisible climate control, moves between 600 and 800 euros per square metre.

The high or premium renovation, with noble materials, integrated home automation, architectural lighting and designer finishes, starts at 800 and climbs to 1,200 or more depending on what you ask for.

A useful reference: a standard renovation that cost around 500 euros per square metre in Spain in 2020 now hovers around 750. Material and labour pressure has not let up.

Next Generation: the grant window closing soon

Those renovating with energy efficiency in mind have until 27 February 2026 to apply for the Generalitat Valenciana's Next Generation grants for 2024-2026. These operate on non-competitive concurrence, meaning they are awarded in order of arrival while budget lasts.

Several programmes sit inside the package. Building-level energy rehabilitation, thermal envelope improvement, individual home efficiency upgrades, drafting of the Existing Building Book. The Generalitat has allocated an initial 26.85 million euros, extended with a further 46.53 million requested from the Ministry.

Operational information is centralised at the RenovEU.com portal and the telephone number 618 620 939, which the Conselleria attends on weekdays. This is not advice. It is where the applications flow through.

If your building has history

Alicante is a city with built memory. Casa Carbonell, the modernist blocks of Rambla de Méndez Núñez, the listed properties of the Old Quarter and El Barrio. If you buy inside a protected building, the rules change entirely.

Decree 49/2022 of the Generalitat Valenciana requires prior stratigraphic studies on listed buildings before any intervention. That means a heritage-trained architect must analyse layers, renders, sgraffito and historical elements before knocking through a wall or stripping a surface. The licence is not for minor works. It is for intervention in a listed building.

If your land registry note says the property sits inside the Special Protection Plan of the Historic Centre, a visit to a specialised architect is not optional. It is the starting point.

Three steps before signing with a contractor

Once the paperwork is mapped, the human part remains. Ask at least three quotes from local contractors. Check they are registered, carry civil liability insurance and issue VAT invoices. Sign a contract with milestone-based payments, not everything up front. And keep in a separate folder the final certificates, installation permits and appliance warranties. They will matter in any future sale.

Renovating in Alicante is, in the end, an act of translation. You take an apartment another life built and you turn it into yours, line by line, permit by permit. The city itself has spent centuries doing exactly that.

At ESYS VIP we accompany those who buy to transform. You can explore our properties with renovation potential on the Costa Blanca, or contact us to understand what is worth renovating and what is already done.