Buying in Santiago de la Ribera

Santiago de la Ribera is San Javier's beach district and it works all year round, which on this coast is not the norm. It has a school, a health centre, a weekly market and shops that stay open in January. That puts it in a different league from the resorts that shut in October, and it's the first thing we ask anyone who comes to buy: is this for two weeks a year, or to live in?

The housing stock is mostly seventies and eighties, in four- to eight-storey blocks running parallel to the promenade. Terraces from that period are genuinely big, not a metre-twenty balcony, and that is why they still sell well. What you need to check is the lift: the older blocks don't always have one, and putting one in means a levy on all the owners.

Towards Barnuevo and the San Javier exit there is newer stock, with parking and a communal pool. It costs more and it is better maintained. On the promenade front line the price steps up in a way that metres alone don't explain — you're paying for the view, and you have to decide whether you want to.

The General Air Academy aerodrome is right there. You can hear the training flights. Some people mind and some never notice. We tell you before the viewing, not after.

Photographs taken from Marmecasa's own listings in each area, for this proposal only.

Beach

Fine sand, no waves, walkable

Year-round

School, health centre and shops open

Housing stock

70s and 80s blocks, generous terraces

Airport

Corvera, roughly 40 min by car