[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":42},["ShallowReactive",2],{"content:cities:en":3},[4,17,29],{"slug":5,"name":6,"state":7,"facts":8},"benidorm","Benidorm","Costa Blanca, Spain",[9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16],"The city is built around two urban beaches, Levante and Poniente, separated by the rock of the old castle; the viewpoint on top of it is the Balcón del Mediterráneo, and the old town occupies the isthmus between the two bays.","The vertical skyline is a planning decision rather than an accident: the plan approved in the middle of the twentieth century chose tall buildings with open ground between them instead of closed city blocks, which is why the seafront is a line of towers.","Buyers here read the city by district before they read square metres: Levante and Rincón de Loix to the north-east, the old town in the centre, Poniente to the south-west, inland neighbourhoods such as Salto del Agua, and the western edge where the built-up area continues into the separate municipality of Finestrat.","Tourism runs all twelve months, with a winter season of residents from northern Europe, so shops, the urban buses and medical services stay open outside the summer — which is not true of every town on this coast.","Services in English, German and Dutch are normal rather than exceptional here — doctors, banks, trades, bars — which is the practical reason many foreign buyers start their search in this city rather than in the smaller towns around it.","The TRAM narrow-gauge tram has its terminus in the city, linking Alicante in one direction and the Marina Alta and Dénia in the other. The AP-7 motorway and the N-332 coast road give road access, and Alicante-Elche airport is a little under an hour away.","The housing stock mixes buildings from the nineteen-sixties and seventies with recent schemes, so buying here means looking at the age of the building, the state of the communal installations and any approved derrama — a levy voted for works — before looking at the view from the terrace.","A large part of that stock is used only a few months a year, and it shows in the owners' associations: tight budgets, poorly attended meetings and repair decisions that drag on. The minutes of the last meeting say more about a building than its advert does.",{"slug":18,"name":19,"state":7,"facts":20},"villajoyosa","Villajoyosa",[21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28],"Villajoyosa and la Vila Joiosa are the same town: the second is its name in Valencian, and both appear in official documents, so a buyer will meet either spelling. It belongs to the Marina Baixa comarca in the province of Alicante, and its centre lies about eight kilometres along the coast from Benidorm.","The fishing port is still working and the lonja still auctions the day's catch, which is why the town's economy does not rest entirely on the summer season.","Chocolate has been made here industrially since the nineteenth century: the Valor factory and its museum are in the town, and cocoa sits alongside fishing, retail and construction in the local economy.","The painted houses along the old seafront are the image the town is known by; tradition holds that each fisherman painted his own so he could recognise it from the sea. The quarter is a protected ensemble, so façade, joinery, roof and colour are conditioned by the town hall — which changes the budget and the timetable of any renovation there.","The Roman past is visible: the Torre de Sant Josep, a funerary monument, stands just outside the centre, and the municipal museum displays the finds from the Roman town the modern one sits on.","The TRAM tram stops in the town: one direction leads to Benidorm, the other to Alicante. The N-332 runs through the municipality, the A-7 and AP-7 give access inland, and Alicante-Elche airport is around forty kilometres away.","Hospital Marina Baixa, the public referral hospital for the whole comarca, is inside this municipality — a detail that weighs for anyone buying to live here all year rather than in August.","For a buyer the practical difference from Benidorm is scale: the seafront is not vertical, the buildings are lower and new construction is far scarcer, so each individual scheme counts for more in the decision and comparable sales are harder to find.",{"slug":30,"name":31,"state":32,"facts":33},"alicante","Alicante","Province of Alicante, Spain",[34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41],"Alicante, Alacant in Valencian, is the capital of the province of the same name and the seat of its Diputación and of the provincial offices of the state administration, so a good part of the comarca's formalities end up passing through the city.","Santa Bárbara castle crowns Mount Benacantil in the middle of the city; at its foot lie the old town and the Santa Cruz quarter, narrow streets with almost no vacant plots left, where what moves is refurbishment rather than new building.","The port sits directly against the city centre and combines freight, cruise calls and regular passenger lines; the Explanada promenade and the Postiguet beach district lean straight onto it.","Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández airport is in the neighbouring municipality of Elche, about ten kilometres from the centre, and it is the air gateway for the whole Costa Blanca, including Benidorm and Villajoyosa.","The city hosts the European Union Intellectual Property Office, and the main campus of the University of Alicante is immediately to the north in San Vicente del Raspeig; both sustain a demand for housing that does not depend on the tourist season.","Alicante Terminal station has high-speed services to Madrid and local services towards the south of the province and Murcia, and the TRAM along the coast to Benidorm leaves from the city centre.","New construction concentrates in the northern extensions and around Playa de San Juan, several kilometres from the centre and linked to it by tram, while in the consolidated districts the activity is replacement and renovation of existing buildings.","For a buyer, Alicante is the least seasonal market in the province: there is demand for primary homes all year, which is why its districts are compared on schools, transport, parking and services before they are compared on distance to the beach.",1791227524147]