Zarautz is a coastal town in Gipuzkoa province between San Sebastián and Getaria, with around twenty-four thousand residents. It has the longest beach on the Basque coast — about two and a half kilometres — and on it one of Spain's main surf breaks.
By asking price the square metre here is the dearest in our entire base, and the explanation is simple: a short shore, dense building and constant demand from San Sebastián and Bilbao. For anyone moving that means there will be no cheap housing here. In exchange: town life all year, a commuter train to San Sebastián and Bilbao, schools and doctors on the spot. The climate is Basque: rain in every month, a cold sea, a cool summer.
Worth a trip nearby
- San Sebastián · 22 km — the La Concha bay and the restaurants
- Getaria · 5 km — the fishing port and Elcano's birthplace
- Bilbao · 80 km — the Guggenheim and a bigger airport
Resalesource
6 994€/m²
+13.8% price growth yoy
asking priceaskingWhat sellers ask on portals. No official appraisal exists for this town: they are published from 25,000 residents up.Why it matters. It carries haggling room, optimism and time on market. A real deal is usually 5–10 % lower; not comparable with another town's appraised value.: what sellers ask
Populationsource
23 467
Foreign residents 6.4%
Winter humidity
78%
damp risk without heating
Sunshine hours per year
1 650h
Zarautz sits in Basque Country, Gipuzkoa, right on the water. The square metre is 73% above the Basque Coast median: €6 994 against €4 044. Winters are damp at 78% humidity, so ask about mould before you sign. Summers are packed: tourist load hits 5 out of 5 at the peak against 1 in winter.
Hospital, terrain, getting around
Nearest hospitalsource
18min by car
Hospital Universitario Donostia
Donostia/San Sebastián · 19.7 km · public
Terrainsource
rolling
Centre at 6 m, 28 m of elevation change
25–80 m of change — the climb from the sea to the centre is noticeable on foot
Car-freeour rating
3/5
possible without a car, with caveats
Stations: San Pelaio, Zarautz · bus stops within 1.5 km: 37
Where from: the Ministry of Health hospital catalogue, road time · elevations from the Copernicus terrain model · OpenStreetMap · ratingswinter liveabilityOur 1-to-5 rating of whether a town lives from November to March — open places, running transport, people around.Why it matters. Most resorts shut for winter. Tourists never notice; someone who moved gets four empty months. An estimate, not a measurement. for car-free and hospital minutes are ours.
Sea temperature
3 months above 20 °CTourist load
What tenants actually pay
sourced75th percentile75th percentileThe rent that only a quarter of leases exceed. The median is the middle of all leases, old ones included.Why it matters. A new lease is signed closer to this figure than to the median: long-standing tenants pay old rates, a newcomer pays today's.
997€/mo
This is the median rent on active leases — tax records for 2024, a sample of 1 339 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: SERPAVISERPAVIThe Ministry of Housing's public registry of rents: medians of actual signed leases by municipality.Why it matters. Asking rent and signed rent are different things: across our base listings run about one and a half times above the registry. The registry shows what people actually pay., Ministerio de Vivienda · municipality: Zarautz
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 | 855 €/mo | SERPAVISERPAVIThe Ministry of Housing's public registry of rents: medians of actual signed leases by municipality.Why it matters. Asking rent and signed rent are different things: across our base listings run about one and a half times above the registry. The registry shows what people actually pay. · 78 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: 0. Names and curricula for this place are not verified yet — the school registry covers the thirty most-requested places so far.
1Renting without a Spanish contract
How realistic a long lease is without a nóminanóminaA Spanish employment contract with payslips. Landlords ask for it as proof of income.Why it matters. A newcomer does not have one and will not in the first year. Where it is required, a long lease is nearly impossible — even with money in the bank. — on foreign income, savings or prepayment.
- —6.4% foreign residents — the market is built for locals with a contract
- —Prices rising 13.8% a year — the landlord picks, and the first filter is a nómina
This is our model, not a measurement: demanding a nóminanóminaA Spanish employment contract with payslips. Landlords ask for it as proof of income.Why it matters. A newcomer does not have one and will not in the first year. Where it is required, a long lease is nearly impossible — even with money in the bank. 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
INEINESpain's National Statistics Institute. It keeps the padrón — the official register of residents of every municipality.Why it matters. The only primary source of population for the whole country. A figure 'per INE' can be checked against a table; a figure 'from the internet' cannot. 2025Foreign residents on the padrónpadrónThe municipal register of residents. Registering in it — empadronamiento — proves you live here.Why it matters. Official population comes from it, and you will need it yourself: without registration there is no health card and no school enrolment.
6.4%
1,497 of 23,467
- Nicaragua307
- Morocco107
- Argentina98
- Colombia77
- Romania74
- Italy61
- Honduras44
- China39
Communities and services in their language
- frFrench~300Surf community and proximity to France
- enEnglish~200
Where from: INEINESpain's National Statistics Institute. It keeps the padrón — the official register of residents of every municipality.Why it matters. The only primary source of population for the whole country. A figure 'per INE' can be checked against a table; a figure 'from the internet' cannot., Censo Anual de Población · the register-based census counts padrónpadrónThe municipal register of residents. Registering in it — empadronamiento — proves you live here.Why it matters. Official population comes from it, and you will need it yourself: without registration there is no health card and no school enrolment. 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 EASSan Sebastián airportIATA code EAS.
January 2026/2727 min to the airportDestinations served at least weekly in January; checked 2026-09-17.
Paperwork and practicalities
Appointment for the TIETIETarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero — the plastic residence card with your NIE and the permit's expiry. Issued at the police after entering on a visa or after a permit is approved.Why it matters. Without the card you cannot open a resident bank account, sign a long lease or prove your status at the border. The police appointment (cita) is a weeks-long bottleneck in some provinces.· Gipuzkoafrom reports
3The only office is in Donostia. One to two weeks of waiting, longer in summer and September. Nobody reports a shortage of fingerprint appointments, though there were queues at the immigration office ahead of the regularisation. Treat this as a rough estimate.
1 — no slots for weeks, 5 — freely available. Checked 2026-09-17
Coworking within 3 km
not on the map
Dog beaches within 8 km
not on the map
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».
