
Seville
Seville is the capital of Andalusia and Spain's fifth city: six hundred and eighty-nine thousand people, a million and a half with the suburbs. It stands on the Guadalquivir ninety kilometres from the sea — further than anywhere else in our base, qualifying under the general rule of «within a hundred and fifty kilometres of the coast». The river made the city: until the nineteenth century seagoing ships came up it, and all trade with the Americas passed through Seville. From those days remain the cathedral with the Giralda, the Alcázar and the Archive of the Indies, all three on the World Heritage list.
Today it is an ordinary large city with a university, hospitals and a metro, running all year. For two weeks in April it runs differently. Holy Week and the Feria follow almost back to back, the centre is closed off and accommodation gets dearer. The second thing to know in advance is the summer: July and August average close to thirty degrees over the day, and the city stops in the afternoon. In exchange the winter is mild and dry by northern standards, and housing costs noticeably less than on the coast. The sea is far, and nobody pays for it here.
- Cádiz · 125 km — the nearest real seaside city
- Jerez de la Frontera · 90 km — sherry, horses and an airport of its own
- Carmona · 38 km — the fortress and the Roman necropolis above the plain
Seville sits in Seville, 90 km from the water. You can live here without a car: our rating is 5 out of 5, rare on the Spanish coast, and the town has its own train station. The sea is 90 km away: not a seaside town but a town near the sea, and the beach means a drive. The airport is 20 minutes away, closer than for most places in the database.
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.
Nearest sea: temperature by month
5 months above 20 °CsourceAverage sea surface temperature, °C, for 2015–2024 — NOAA OISST satellite series, grid cell 80.6 km from the centre.
Tourist load
Seville beaches and water quality
sourceSeville has no bathing point of its own in the EU register: the centre is 90 km from the sea. The nearest beaches where the water is tested, in a straight line:
| Beach | Area | Distance | Grade 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Playa Matalascanas | Huelva | 66 km | excellent |
| Playa Bajo de Guia-Bonanza | Cádiz | 74 km | excellent |
| Playa Mazagon/Castilla | Huelva | 74 km | excellent |
The grade is bacteria in water samples over the last four seasons — not sand, views or crowds. “Poor” means bathing there is advised against.
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 34 668 leases. It includes long-standing contracts at unchanged rents, so it sits below what is asked today: our estimate of asking rent is 1 120 € 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: Sevilla
Rent by number of bedrooms
asking price, estimate| 1 bedroom | 770 €/mo | |
| 2 bedrooms | 1 120 €/mo | |
| 3 bedrooms | ≈ 1 460 €/mo | model: two-bed × 1.3, no measurement yet |
| Median of active leases, 2024 | 668 €/mo | SERPAVI · 75 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
from registries- Colegio Internacional de Sevilla San Francisco de PaulaSevillaIBSpanish bilingualSpanish, English · 0–18 · privateSpain's oldest private school (founded 1885), the only one in Seville's historic centre with the full IB continuum
- CBS, The British School of SevilleBollullos de la MitaciónBritishEnglish, Spanish · 3–18 · private
- Deutsche Schule Sevilla (Colegio Alemán Alberto Durero)SevillaGermanGerman, Spanish · 3–18 · private
- Lycée français de SévilleSevillaFrenchFrench · 2–18 · private
Checked against registries and school sites: 2026-09-17. Fees are on each school's site: nobody publishes them centrally.
Renting without a Spanish contract
How realistic a long lease is without a nómina — on foreign income, savings or prepayment.
- —A community with its own services: agencies have dealt with foreigners before
- —Prices rising 10% a year — the landlord picks, and the first filter is a nómina
- —A big city: queues at viewings and a bank guarantee as the norm
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- Colombia7 696
- Morocco5 701
- Nicaragua5 114
- Venezuela4 805
- China3 546
- Peru3 199
- Italy2 045
- Paraguay2 014
- esSpanish~7 700school, doctors or lawyers in the languageColombia — the largest foreign community (13.3%)
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 SVQ
January 2026/2720 min to the airport- Italy14
- France12
- United Kingdom9
- Germany9
- other countries9
- Netherlands3
- Switzerland3
- Poland3
- Ireland2
- Belgium2
- Portugal2
- Denmark1
- Austria1
- 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».
Month by month
Air, sea, how busy it gets and what stays open — for each month on its own.
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.
- Seven mistakes people make moving to coastal SpainEvery mistake counted across 132 coastal places: how many empty out in winter, where it is damp, where a car is unavoidable and where the sea is warm for three months.
- International schools: where a family has a choiceSchool decides the town more firmly than price. What is counted is the choice, not the quality — we have no honest ranking and cannot build one.
- Best places to live in coastal Spain: five lists, not one rankingAlive in winter, longer swimming, no car needed, cheaper, with children — five sorts of the base by measured fields. A single ranking does not exist.
Where to look next
- Sanlúcar de Barrameda2 053 €/m²
- Jerez de la Frontera1 803 €/m²
- Huelva1 650 €/m²
- Salobreña2 235 €/m²
- Punta Umbría2 226 €/m²
- Chiclana de la Frontera2 219 €/m²
- Mojácar2 651 €/m²
- Santander2 656 €/m²
- Santa Pola2 604 €/m²