Villajoyosa or Benidorm: how the two towns differ and what that means if you are choosing
Villajoyosa from the project
3D visualisations of the designed building and its shared areas.
Eight kilometres apart, and two different purchases
Most people looking at flats in Villajoyosa arrive after looking at Benidorm, eight kilometres down the coast road. The two are neighbours and they are not alternatives of the same kind. This page compares them for a buyer: the buildings, the year, the transport, and what you will not find here. La Vila Joiosa, its name in Valencian, is the traditional capital of the Marina Baixa comarca in the province of Alicante. It is not a suburb of Benidorm and not a coastal development: it is a town with a historic centre, a working fishing port, industry of its own and the comarca's hospital. Nearly everything else follows from that.
One town is vertical by design, the other is not
Benidorm's skyline is a planning decision, not an accident: the town's mid-century plan chose tall buildings with open ground between them instead of closed city blocks, and the towers on the seafront are the result. Villajoyosa was never rezoned that way. Its seafront is low, its centre is a dense old quarter above the beach, and new schemes appear on single plots rather than in whole districts. For a foreign buyer that difference is practical rather than aesthetic. In Benidorm there are hundreds of broadly comparable flats in towers of similar age, so a price can be sanity-checked against neighbours on the same street. Here there are far fewer directly comparable homes, which makes a single valuation harder to anchor — and makes the documents on the specific building matter more than the average of the area.
What stays open in January
This is the question that separates the two towns most reliably. Benidorm runs twelve months a year, with a winter season of northern European visitors, and it has normalised services in English, German and Dutch — doctors, banks, bars, trades. Villajoyosa stays open in winter for a different reason: it has an economy that is not tourism. The port still lands fish and the lonja still auctions the catch in the morning; chocolate has been made here industrially since the nineteenth century; and the public hospital that serves the whole comarca, including Benidorm, is in this municipality. If you intend to spend a winter rather than an August, measure exactly that: bakery, market, health centre, school, pharmacy, bus. In a town with its own economy the answer is usually «most of it». What you will find less of is the service in your own language that Benidorm takes for granted.
Living here without two cars
A narrow-gauge tram, the TRAM, runs through the municipality and has a stop in the town. Line 1 links Alicante with Benidorm via El Campello and la Vila; in Benidorm it connects with line 9, which continues up the coast towards Dénia. That combination reaches both centres without a car, which matters more in a second home than it sounds: it can mean one car instead of two, and teenagers who move about on their own. By road, the N-332 is the coastal route between the two towns and the A-7 the motorway to the Costa Blanca airport, around forty kilometres away. A car remains necessary in the hillside developments, away from the tram and the shops — a distinction worth checking on a map before falling for a view.
What is actually for sale, and what is not
Supply in la Vila is mostly resale: the old quarter, blocks built between the nineteen-seventies and the nineties along the urban beach, and scattered schemes on the strip facing the sea. New construction exists but is small in unit numbers and arrives plot by plot. That cuts both ways. There is less competition for each home and less pressure to decide in one afternoon; there is also less to choose from. If you want new construction with a particular layout and outlook, you will probably wait for something to come up or buy an older home and renovate. And buying inside the painted old quarter means buying inside a protected area: façade, joinery, roof and colour are not decided at home, the town hall sets the conditions, and those conditions change both the budget and the timetable of a renovation. Read them before you sign anything. One more consequence, and it is financial: a small market is a less liquid market. Selling here usually takes longer than selling in Benidorm's Levante, because at any moment fewer buyers are looking. If your horizon is short, that weighs.
Three purchases inside one town
On the seafront, above the urban beach, sit blocks from the seventies and eighties with open views. These are buildings that age in salt air: joinery, terrace waterproofing, façades. Buy the view, but ask for the minutes of the owners' meetings, the building's technical inspection report and any derrama — the one-off levy voted for works — already approved. In the old quarter you buy character and pay for stairs, narrow streets and conditioned building works. Inland and up the hillsides you buy floor area, terrace and parking, and you pay in driving. In all three cases the basic check is the same and it is yours to make: the nota simple from the Registro de la Propiedad for the registered owner, the registered surface and any charges; the latest IBI receipt for the municipal property tax; and the real year of construction. If the home was refurbished, ask for the municipal licence for that work — an unpermitted renovation is inherited with the house. SAVO is designing a building in this municipality. Today it exists in 3D visualisations and in the master plan drawing: nothing built, nothing for sale, no date. That is why this page offers you no home — only a way of looking at the ones that already exist.
Villajoyosa, Costa Blanca, Spain
- Villajoyosa and la Vila Joiosa are the same town: the second is its name in Valencian, and both appear in official documents, so a buyer will meet either spelling. It belongs to the Marina Baixa comarca in the province of Alicante, and its centre lies about eight kilometres along the coast from Benidorm.
- The fishing port is still working and the lonja still auctions the day's catch, which is why the town's economy does not rest entirely on the summer season.
- Chocolate has been made here industrially since the nineteenth century: the Valor factory and its museum are in the town, and cocoa sits alongside fishing, retail and construction in the local economy.
- The painted houses along the old seafront are the image the town is known by; tradition holds that each fisherman painted his own so he could recognise it from the sea. The quarter is a protected ensemble, so façade, joinery, roof and colour are conditioned by the town hall — which changes the budget and the timetable of any renovation there.
- The Roman past is visible: the Torre de Sant Josep, a funerary monument, stands just outside the centre, and the municipal museum displays the finds from the Roman town the modern one sits on.
- The TRAM tram stops in the town: one direction leads to Benidorm, the other to Alicante. The N-332 runs through the municipality, the A-7 and AP-7 give access inland, and Alicante-Elche airport is around forty kilometres away.
- Hospital Marina Baixa, the public referral hospital for the whole comarca, is inside this municipality — a detail that weighs for anyone buying to live here all year rather than in August.
- For a buyer the practical difference from Benidorm is scale: the seafront is not vertical, the buildings are lower and new construction is far scarcer, so each individual scheme counts for more in the decision and comparable sales are harder to find.
Questions about new-build on the Costa Blanca
- 01
Is Villajoyosa quieter than Benidorm?
In winter, clearly: it is a town with its own economy and no mass seasonal tourism. In July and August the centre, the urban beach and the port fill up, and the summer patron-saint festivities draw large crowds. The stable difference is not the summer, it is the rest of the year.
- 02
Is a resale negotiated the same way as new construction?
No. In a resale the seller is usually a private individual and price, dates, furniture and repairs are all on the table. In new construction a company sells against a list of conditions, and what normally moves is the finishes and the payment schedule. In both cases only what ends up in the contract counts.
- 03
What is paid on top of the price of the home?
The tax that matches the type of purchase — ITP in a resale, IVA plus AJD stamp duty in a new home — then the notary, registration at the Registro de la Propiedad and, if there is a mortgage, the valuation. The rates and the amounts are confirmed for your case by your own tax adviser, not by a web page.
- 04
Can I live here without speaking Spanish?
You can manage, but less easily than in Benidorm, where services in English, German and Dutch are normal. Here Spanish and Valencian are the working languages of the town hall, the health centre and the trades. For the purchase itself that matters less — the documents are in Spanish in both towns, and a sworn translation or an interpreter at the deed is the usual answer.
Ask about Villajoyosa
Say what you want to know about this area: what is being built, what stage it is at, or which documents to ask for before reserving. The person who handles the Spanish market answers.