Finding a property in Spain starts out exciting: an apartment by the sea, a villa with a pool, or maybe new build? But the choice is huge, the coasts differ more than you'd think, and after a few evenings of scrolling you often know less than when you started.
In short
- AnaCosta Spain Match is a free online tool: 8 short questions, a couple of minutes.
- You don't get a long list, but properties ranked by how well they match your preferences, with a personal match score.
- Covers the Costa Blanca (North and South), Costa Cálida and Costa Almería, even if you don't yet know which coast suits you.
- The match score (does it suit you?) is separate from the AnaCosta Score (how good is the property itself?).
Not every property that fits your budget is also the right property for you. An apartment on the Costa Blanca can look great on paper, but if what matters most to you is peace and quiet, a pool, or a short drive to the airport, it isn't automatically the best choice.
That's why AnaCosta built AnaCosta Spain Match. The starting point is the same as in all our work: we don't start with the property listings, we start with what you're looking for. First work out what suits you. Then see which properties fit that.
From hundreds of properties to your best matches
The usual search for a property in Spain starts with a list of hundreds of listings. You switch on filters, move to a different region, change the budget and start again. That produces a lot of information, and not much direction.
Spain Match reverses that order. The first question isn't "what's for sale?", it's "what are you actually looking for?". The 8 questions:
- Purpose: holiday home, living permanently, wintering or retirement, or investment and rental.
- Region: Costa Blanca North, Costa Blanca South, Costa Cálida, Costa Almería, or "advise me".
- Place: one or more towns or golf resorts, such as Torrevieja, Lo Pagán, La Manga Club or Mojácar.
- Property type: apartment, villa, or bungalow/townhouse.
- Bedrooms: 1, 2, 3 or 4+.
- What matters to you (optional): for example a private or communal pool, close to the beach, sea view, golf, a quiet area or nearby amenities.
- Budget (optional): with a slider, or choose "prefer to discuss".
- Timing: as soon as possible, within 6 or 12 months, or still just orienting.
Already found a property you like? Choose that at the first question, and Spain Match will point you to CasaScout: we'll view the property for you on location.
After that, your answers are compared with the current property listings and the AnaCosta Selections. You get to see concrete properties that match your profile, with the reason why for each one.
The difference: Spain Match starts with you, not with the property listings.
A 96% match says more than 500 search results
A search filter is useful, but works on yes or no. If a property misses on just one point, you don't see it. And what does pass the filter is sorted by price or date, not by how well it suits you.
Spain Match looks at the combination of your preferences. A property can be right on price and number of bedrooms, but if you're after a quiet spot close to the beach and the property sits in a busy centre, another option may suit you better. That trade-off is what the match score makes visible.
How it works in practice: an example
Take Peter and Anja, both 58, from the Netherlands. They want to spend future winters in Spain. Their answers in Spain Match:
- Purpose: wintering / retirement
- Region: Costa Blanca South and Costa Cálida, still deciding between the two
- Place: Santiago de la Ribera and Pilar de la Horadada
- Type: apartment, 2 bedrooms
- Important: communal pool, close to the beach, quiet area
- Budget: up to €300,000
Their top three looks like this:
| Property | Price | Match | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apartment, 2 beds, Santiago de la Ribera (Costa Cálida) | €279,000 | 96% | Chosen place, within budget, 2 bedrooms, and all three preferences: pool, close to the beach, quiet. |
| Bungalow, 2 beds, Pilar de la Horadada (Costa Blanca South) | €309,000 | 84% | Chosen place and all preferences, but a bungalow instead of an apartment and 3% over budget. |
| Apartment, 2 beds, Torrevieja (Costa Blanca South) | €239,000 | 77% | Sharp price and close to the beach, but not in one of their chosen places and without a pool. |
Illustrative example with fictitious properties. Scores are calculated using the Spain Match scoring model.
What stands out: the cheapest property scores lowest. And the bungalow in Pilar de la Horadada ranks second, while a plain search filter ("apartment, up to €300,000") would never have shown it. They decide for themselves how much weight those deviations carry.
There's an extra advantage to the number one: on a resale property you pay transfer tax (ITP), and that's 7.75% in Murcia versus 9% in the Comunidad Valenciana. On €279,000, that's over €3,400 less than on the Costa Blanca. How these differences play out per coast is explained in Costa Blanca, Costa Cálida or Costa Almería? The comparison in numbers.
How the match score is built up
Every property gets a score from 0 to 100, built up from fixed components. Place weighs most heavily (25 points), then budget (20), region (15), number of bedrooms (15), property type (8) and your extra preferences (7). The last 10 points are for new build or resale. Spain Match doesn't ask about this, so this component always counts as neutral (6 of 10). That's why 96% is the highest achievable score. If you chose "no preference" anywhere else, that component counts neutrally in the same way, neither full nor zero.
Two things are hard limits. A property outside the regions you chose, or more than 10% over your maximum budget, never appears among your best matches, however well it scores otherwise. Up to 5% over only gives a small deduction. From 90% Spain Match calls it an excellent match, from 80% a very good one, from 70% a good one.
Match score and AnaCosta Score: two different questions
Personal. The same property scores differently for a different buyer.
Our independent assessment, the same for every buyer.
Properties and projects in the AnaCosta Selections carry both a match score and an AnaCosta Score. We give this score after our own research, in which location, price-quality ratio, build quality and nearby amenities, among other factors, all weigh in. Only properties that score highly appear as a Selection.
The two scores are independent of each other. A property with an AnaCosta Score of 9.5 can still be a low match for you, because it isn't in the region you're looking at. Conversely, a property can suit you perfectly, while we note a caveat on build quality. Because you see both, you don't have to rely on a single number.
Not sure yet where in Spain you want to buy?
Many buyers don't know exactly where they want to live in advance. It starts with a general picture: "something near the sea, amenities nearby, enough outdoor space, within our budget." That's when Spain Match is especially useful, because you can leave multiple regions open.
The three coasts in AnaCosta's area differ more than many people think:
- Costa Blanca (Alicante): the widest choice and the best flight connections via Alicante-Elche, but also the busiest in the popular hotspots.
- Costa Cálida (Murcia): quieter, around the Mar Menor, with lower transfer tax and often more property for the same money.
- Costa Almería (Andalucía): the most authentic, with the lowest ITP rate, but further from the main airports.
Buyers who think they only want the Costa Blanca sometimes discover through Spain Match that the Costa Cálida suits them better, as with Peter and Anja, where a Costa Cálida apartment came out on top.
Not seeing your ideal property today?
Our online listings are only part of the market. Sometimes no property meets all your basic preferences. In that case, Spain Match shows the best alternatives that come as close as possible to your profile, with the deviation shown for each one. Your budget limit still applies.
You can also save your search profile. That's entirely optional: you can view your matches without leaving any details. With a saved profile, we'll contact you as soon as we see properties that match your preferences well. That way you don't have to start searching from scratch each time. Want to search beyond our online listings? Choose "Let AnaCosta search for me". As an independent Property Finder, we then also search beyond our own listings.
What happens next?
A match is a starting point, not a purchase decision. Before you sign, you'll want to know what a property actually costs in total and how long the process takes. Read what buying a house in Spain really costs and how long it takes from offer to keys. Want us to look at it with you? Our buyer's guidance is the next step: we work for you as the buyer, not for the seller.
Do the AnaCosta Spain Match
8 questions. A couple of minutes. Your best matches, instantly.