Getxo
Getxo is a municipality at the mouth of the Nervión at the entrance to the Bilbao estuary, with around seventy-eight thousand residents. The Biscay Bridge crosses the river here — an eighteen ninety-three transporter bridge that still carries cars and people in a gondola and is on the UNESCO list.
Getxo is Bilbao's most expensive suburb: in the late nineteenth century the owners of the shipyards and mines built houses here, and those mansions still line the seafront. Today it is a residential district of the Biscayan capital, with a metro to the centre and beaches inside the municipality. The climate is Atlantic: rain all year, a cold sea. Housing costs more than in Bilbao itself.
- Bilbao · 15 km — the Guggenheim and the airport
- Plentzia · 15 km — the bay and beach at the end of the metro line
- Bakio · 30 km — the surf and the San Juan de Gaztelugatxe hermitage
Getxo sits in Basque Country, Biscay, right on the water. The square metre is 20% below the Basque Coast median: €4 125 against €5 186. 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. Winters are damp at 77% humidity, so ask about mould before you sign.
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.
Getxo sea temperature by month
3 months above 20 °CsourceAverage sea surface temperature, °C, for 2015–2024 — NOAA OISST satellite series, grid cell 10.5 km from the centre.
Tourist load
Getxo beaches and water quality
sourceGetxo has 4 beaches tested under EU bathing water rules, at 5 sampling points. In the 2025 season, 3 of 4 were graded excellent. The last “poor” grade here was in 2025: Playa de las Arenas.
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 de Ereaga | 0.8 km | excellent | 14 seasons | 2000 |
| Playa de Arrigunaga | 1 km | excellent | 14 seasons | 2001 |
| Playa de las Arenas | 2.4 km | poor | — | 2025 |
| Playa de Azkorri | 3.4 km | excellent | 36 seasons | none since 1990 |
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 2 604 leases. It includes long-standing contracts at unchanged rents, so it sits below what is asked today: our estimate of asking rent is 1 400 € 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: Getxo
Rent by number of bedrooms
asking price, estimate| 1 bedroom | 1 000 €/mo | |
| 2 bedrooms | 1 400 €/mo | |
| 3 bedrooms | ≈ 1 820 €/mo | model: two-bed × 1.3, no measurement yet |
| Median of active leases, 2024 | 900 €/mo | SERPAVI · 82 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.
- —7.7% 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- Colombia635
- Paraguay566
- Bolivia397
- Morocco396
- Honduras381
- Romania358
- Peru297
- Nicaragua294
- enEnglish~400
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 BIO
January 2026/2722 min to the airport- other countries7
- Italy6
- Germany5
- United Kingdom4
- Switzerland3
- Poland3
- Portugal2
- Ireland1
- Netherlands1
- Belgium1
- France1
- Czechia1
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».
Articles that include this place
- Spain's minimum wage and average salary in 2026, with sources — and what rent takes on the coastThe 2026 minimum wage from the decree, and the mean and median from INE — every figure linked to its primary source. Then how much of the wage lease rents take, coast by coast.
- Renting long-term on the Spanish coast: what the law says and what tenants payThe five-year renewal and the seasonal lease, article by article. And what tenants on each coast pay under live leases: from tax records, not listings.
- Moving from the UK: four differences nobody writes aboutNot the paperwork but daily life: a house with no heating, a winter both sunny and cold, a compulsory car, and a community that stops you learning the language.
- 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 property is cheapest on the Spanish coast, on a single price basisThe housing ministry's appraised value, ranked by coast and by town, with the price of a 70 m² flat and local incomes alongside. Asking prices get a list of their own: the two bases never share a ranking.
Where to look next
- Bilbao3 524 €/m²
- Zarautz6 994 €/m²
- San Sebastián / Donostia5 186 €/m²
- Ciutadella de Menorca4 077 €/m²
- Alcúdia4 200 €/m²
- Pollença4 000 €/m²