Real estate market, luxury with a sea view: Costa Smeralda and Amalfi Coast more expensive than Ibiza. All prices.

Spain is one of the most popular destinations for wealthy Italians who choose to spend their summer holidays abroad. Especially when it comes to seaside destinations, the Iberian Peninsula offers a variety of options to suit all tastes. But how much does it cost to buy a luxury second home in Spain? And how does it compare to Italy? LuxuryEstate.com , the leading luxury real estate portal and partner of Immobiliare.it , has answered these questions by analyzing the prices of luxury homes for sale on the portal in some renowned seaside resorts in Italy and Spain* .

Luxury home prices in Spain

Among Spanish destinations, Ibiza remains unrivaled: to buy a luxury property on the island, you'll need nearly €9,500/m2 . In second place, but far behind, is San Sebastián , a city located in the Basque Country and famous for its beaches overlooking the Cantabrian Sea. Here, those looking to purchase a luxury home should budget, on average, around €7,650/m2 . The same price is also asked in Barcelona , a good option for those seeking a mix of sea and culture.

Marbella , one of the most popular destinations on the Costa del Sol, also approaches these prices, where a luxury home costs an average of €7,500/m2 . Prices are slightly lower in Benahavís , a town also in the province of Malaga, a few kilometers from the coast, where a luxury property reaches €6,650/m2 .

The last three locations covered in this study, however, remain below the average price of €5,000/m2. In Sotogrande , in the province of Cadiz and near the Strait of Gibraltar, luxury homes cost €4,770/m2 , while in Altea , on the Costa Blanca in the province of Alicante , prices remain around €4,250/m2 . The least expensive area by far, however, is Santander , located in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula, where luxury properties barely reach €4,000/m2 .

The comparison with Italy

In general, luxury homes in coastal areas of Italy are more expensive than those in Spain. While no Spanish destination reaches €10,000/m2, two locations in Italy exceed that figure. The Costa Smeralda is unbeatable, at over €12,750/m2 , followed by the Amalfi Coast , which approaches €11,000/m2 . These prices are much higher than those in Ibiza, Spain's leading property market.

In the rest of the Italian destinations analyzed, prices are more in line with those in Spain. In Liguria, in Alassio the required expenditure for a luxury purchase amounts to 8,220 euros/m2 , while in the Cinque Terre it remains at around 6,800 euros/m2 . Moving on to Tuscany, the costs on Elba Island and in Viareggio are practically identical, around 6,330 euros/m2 .

The two least expensive destinations are Gallipoli and Rimini : anyone wishing to purchase a luxury home in the Apulian city would be forced to shell out, on average, around 4,100 euros/m2 , while in the Emilia-Romagna city the price drops to 3,820 euros/m2 .

Offer: more villas or apartments?

Even in terms of the composition of the offer, some differences can be noted between Italy and Spain. In our peninsula, in fact, in six out of eight destinations, villas prevail over apartments**: the most striking cases are the Costa Smeralda (89% vs. 8%) and Elba Island (91% vs. 6%) , but independent solutions also prevail on the Amalfi Coast (65% vs. 30%) , in Viareggio (48% vs. 36%) , in Rimini (57% vs. 24%) and in Gallipoli (57% vs. 23%) . The two exceptions are the Ligurian destinations, Alassio and the Cinque Terre, where the availability of apartments exceeds that of villas; in the former case 47% vs. 35% , in the latter 66% vs. 28% .

Moving on to Spain, there is a nearly 50/50 split in terms of the composition of the offer among the eight locations analyzed. Villas clearly prevail in Altea (80% vs. 15%) , but they are also the most significant slice of stock in Benahavís (66% vs. 22%) , Marbella (64% vs. 25%) , and Sotogrande (62% vs. 26%) . Conversely, apartments dominate in Barcelona (79% vs. 8%) , San Sebastián (82% vs. 14%) , and Santander (66% vs. 28%) . Finally, in Ibiza, there is an almost equal distribution between the two typologies (47% apartments and 46% villas) .

Italy and Spain remain two key hubs for the luxury seaside second home segment, but with profoundly different dynamics. In Italy, the offerings are of the highest quality, often consisting of villas unique in terms of location, architecture, and view, which translate into significantly higher values per square meter. In Spain, however, there is greater typology variety and a more balanced distribution of the offering between apartments and villas, making the market accessible to a broader international audience, while still maintaining peaks of excellence such as Ibiza . comments Paolo Giabardo, CEO of LuxuryEstate.com Both markets offer high quality standards and specific attractions that reflect their territorial and cultural characteristics, confirming the strategic importance of these destinations for high-profile investors and buyers.