Jávea / Xàbia
Jávea — Xàbia in Valencian — lies in a bay between two headlands, below the Montgó mountain. The town works not as one place but as three. There is the old centre a couple of kilometres inland, the fishing harbour, and El Arenal — the only sandy beach in the middle of the bay, with the holiday district around it. The rest of the shore is rock: cliffs up to 150 metres and coves like La Granadella that you walk down to. The town first appears in documents in the thirteenth century, when this land was taken from the Arabs.
Almost half the residents are foreign: about six thousand Britons and two thousand Germans. This is one of the least Spanish stretches of the coast, and daily life is arranged to match. Houses stand in estates across the hills, with slopes and pine between them, and getting to a shop, a school or the sea almost always means driving. Nobody lives here without a car — that is the thing to weigh up first. There is no railway either, and Alicante airport is an hour and a half away. In exchange: a hospital 19 minutes off, two international schools, and a shoreline nobody filled with tower blocks.
- Dénia · 10 km — ferries to the islands, the tram to Benidorm, the hospital
- Calpe · 25 km — the Ifach rock and sandy beaches
- Valencia · 100 km — a second airport, the station, a proper city
Jávea / Xàbia sits in Costa Blanca, Alicante, right on the water. 47.5% of residents are foreign nationals per the census: Spanish is not the only language you will hear on the street. The airport is 95 minutes away: meeting visitors and flying out both cost you half a day. Summers are packed: tourist load hits 5 out of 5 at the peak against 1 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.
Jávea sea temperature by month
5 months above 20 °CsourceAverage sea surface temperature, °C, for 2015–2024 — NOAA OISST satellite series, grid cell 10.2 km from the centre.
Tourist load
Jávea beaches and water quality
sourceJávea has 6 beaches tested under EU bathing water rules, at 6 sampling points. In the 2025 season, all 6 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 del Muntanyar I | 1.5 km | excellent | 26 seasons | none since 1993 |
| Playa de la Grava | 1.6 km | excellent | 26 seasons | none since 1990 |
| Playa de l’ Arenal | 2.8 km | excellent | 31 seasons | none since 1990 |
| Playa de la Cala Blanca | 4.6 km | excellent | 33 seasons | none since 1993 |
| Playa La Barraca-El Portitxol | 6.4 km | excellent | 33 seasons | none since 1993 |
| Playa de la Granadella | 7.1 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 1 390 leases. It includes long-standing contracts at unchanged rents, so it sits below what is asked today: our estimate of asking rent is 1 250 € 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: Jávea/Xàbia
Rent by number of bedrooms
asking price, estimate| 1 bedroom | 950 €/mo | |
| 2 bedrooms | 1 250 €/mo | |
| 3 bedrooms | ≈ 1 630 €/mo | model: two-bed × 1.3, no measurement yet |
| Median of active leases, 2024 | 647 €/mo | SERPAVI · 98 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: 2. 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.
- —47.5% foreign residents — income from abroad is routine for landlords here
- —A community with its own services: agencies have dealt with foreigners before
- —Prices rising 8.5% a year — the landlord picks, and the first filter is a nómina
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- United Kingdom4 550
- Colombia1 803
- Netherlands1 114
- Morocco952
- Venezuela772
- Germany641
- France430
- Russia413
- enEnglish~6 000school, doctors or lawyers in the language
- deGerman~2 000school, doctors or lawyers in the language
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 ALC
January 2026/2795 min to the airport- United Kingdom21
- other countries17
- Germany12
- Poland10
- Norway7
- Italy6
- Sweden5
- France5
- Belgium4
- Netherlands3
- Switzerland3
- Ireland2
- Denmark2
- Czechia2
- Finland1
- Austria1
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
- Costa Blanca and Alicante beaches by water quality: every beach's record since 1990Every beach in Alicante province with an official sampling point: where the water has stayed excellent, where it slipped in recent seasons, and when the coast is quieter for the same sea.
- 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.
- Where Britons in Spain actually liveA hundred thousand Britons from the census, broken down by town. The places with the densest community and the places that live in winter are different lists.
- 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.
- 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.
Where to look next
- Dénia2 989 €/m²
- Moraira3 956 €/m²
- Calpe / Calp3 258 €/m²
- Valencia2 957 €/m²
- El Campello2 824 €/m²
- Badalona2 769 €/m²
- Roses3 489 €/m²
- Rincón de la Victoria3 498 €/m²
- Bilbao3 524 €/m²