Cádiz
Cádiz sits on a narrow spit in the Atlantic, surrounded by water on almost every side. It is reckoned one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe. The Phoenicians founded it some three thousand years ago. That geography makes the old centre very dense: narrow streets, nowhere to grow, and almost everything within walking distance.
Cádiz peaked in the eighteenth century, when the American trade moved here from Seville; from those days remain the cathedral and the houses with watchtowers, used to spot returning ships. Today it is an ordinary provincial city: a port, a university, a famous February carnival. The Atlantic here is colder than the Mediterranean, but the beaches are longer and prices noticeably lower than on the Costa del Sol.
- El Puerto de Santa María · 22 km — across the bay, the ferry and the sherry bodegas
- Jerez de la Frontera · 35 km — sherry, horses and the airport
- Tarifa · 100 km — the wind, the kitesurfing and the view of Africa
Cádiz sits in Cádiz, Costa de la Luz, right on the water. The square metre is 36% above the Costa de la Luz median: €3 011 against €2 219. You can live here without a car: our rating is 4 out of 5, rare on the Spanish coast, and the town has its own train station. Summers are packed: tourist load hits 5 out of 5 at the peak against 2 in winter.
Hospital, terrain, getting around
Where from: the Ministry of Health hospital catalogue, road time · elevations from the Copernicus terrain model · OpenStreetMap · ratings for car-free and hospital minutes are ours.
Cádiz sea temperature by month
5 months above 20 °CsourceAverage sea surface temperature, °C, for 2015–2024 — NOAA OISST satellite series, grid cell 12.9 km from the centre.
Tourist load
Cádiz beaches and water quality
sourceCádiz has 4 beaches tested under EU bathing water rules, at 8 sampling points. In the 2025 season, all 4 were graded excellent. No beach here has been graded “poor” since testing began in 1990.
The grade is bacteria in water samples over the last four seasons — not sand, views or crowds. “Poor” means bathing there is advised against.
| Beach | From the centre | Grade 2025 | “Excellent” in a row | Last “poor” |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Playa Sta Maria del Mar | 1.1 km | excellent | 14 seasons | none since 1991 |
| Playa La Caleta | 1.2 km | excellent | 4 seasons | none since 1990 |
| Playa La Victoria | 2.4 km | excellent | 15 seasons | none since 1990 |
| Playa Cortadura | 4.2 km | excellent | 15 seasons | none since 1991 |
Where from: European Environment Agency, bathing water register, seasons 1990–2025, licence CC BY 4.0. Distance is from the centre in a straight line. Every place in one table
On the map
What tenants actually pay
sourcedThis is the median rent on active leases — tax records for 2024, a sample of 5 066 leases. It includes long-standing contracts at unchanged rents, so it sits below what is asked today: our estimate of asking rent is 960 € for a two-bedroom.
The point of the 75th percentile: it is closer to what is being signed now than the median. The gap between them shows how much a new tenant overpays relative to long-standing ones.
Where from: SERPAVI, Ministerio de Vivienda · municipality: Cádiz
Rent by number of bedrooms
asking price, estimate| 1 bedroom | 660 €/mo | |
| 2 bedrooms | 960 €/mo | |
| 3 bedrooms | ≈ 1 250 €/mo | model: two-bed × 1.3, no measurement yet |
| Median of active leases, 2024 | 650 €/mo | SERPAVI · 72 m² |
Asking prices are what long lets are advertised at today; the registry is what tenants pay on signed leases, including old ones. The gap between them is your negotiating argument.
Schools nearby
estimateInternational schools counted in the base: 1. Names and curricula for this place are not verified yet — the school registry covers the thirty most-requested places so far.
Renting without a Spanish contract
How realistic a long lease is without a nómina — on foreign income, savings or prepayment.
- —3% foreign residents — the market is built for locals with a contract
This is our model, not a measurement: demanding a nómina is an individual landlord's practice and nobody publishes it. The rating is derived from the share of foreign residents, the presence of a community with services, price growth, seasonality of the stock and the size of the town.
Who lives here
INE 2025- Morocco471
- China291
- Italy245
- Colombia219
- United Kingdom162
- Honduras160
- United States111
- Argentina109
- arArabic~471Morocco — the largest foreign community in the city (14.1% of foreign residents)
Where from: INE, Censo Anual de Población · the register-based census counts padrón registrations by citizenship on 1 January, not everyone living here: seasonal owners and the unregistered are outside it, and naturalised residents count as Spanish.
Winter direct flights from XRY
January 2026/2740 min to the airportThe winter schedule for this airport is not verified yet.
Destinations served at least weekly in January; checked 2026-09-17.
Paperwork and practicalities
From OpenStreetMap — an open map filled in by volunteers. Something missing there may still exist: read this as «we found this many», not «there are no more».
Month by month
Air, sea, how busy it gets and what stays open — for each month on its own.
Articles that include this place
- How long the swimming season actually lasts«Three hundred days of sunshine» is said of every coast. You swim in the water, and by water the places range from two months to nine.
- The coast without a carA resort stretched along a highway and an old port with a dense centre are different ways of living. Size is not what separates them.
- Which coastal towns are actually alive in winterMost resorts shut down from November to March. Tourists never notice; people moving there notice everything — and no directory measures it.
- Andalusia's beaches by water quality: five provinces, the Bay of Algeciras and the sea from the Strait to MojácarGrades from the European register for every sampling point on Andalusia's coast since 1990: where the water was not excellent in 2025, Huelva's bad first year, the bay against the ocean in Cádiz, eight clean seasons in Málaga and Almería, and the sea on five coasts.
- Retiring to coastal Spain: who already lives there, how far the hospital is, and whether the town stays open in winterThe share of residents over 65 and over 80 in every place we cover, from the INE census, the drive to the nearest public hospital, and the measured winter score. No ranking: only what the numbers show.
Where to look next
- El Puerto de Santa María2 555 €/m²
- Chiclana de la Frontera2 219 €/m²
- Jerez de la Frontera1 803 €/m²
- El Puerto de Santa María2 555 €/m²
- San Roque2 512 €/m²
- Nerja2 450 €/m²
- Almuñécar3 021 €/m²
- Es Castell3 000 €/m²
- Dénia2 989 €/m²