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In our recent posts we discussed the state of the Airbnb market at the national level, moving from autonomous communities to provinces.  As you know, at BrickStarter we like to follow the deductive method, and if you have been following us you will know why we are now going to study the case of Alicante. If you have not, we invite you to browse our magazine and catch up! 

To set the scene, we had reached the conclusion that it is on the Mediterranean coast that the market works best for Airbnb.

And within the coast, we saw that there were some provinces where, even though the business model works, it would be more difficult, a priori, to obtain a return since there is an oversupply of properties dedicated to this service. (Barcelona, the Balearic Islands, Málaga).

The Valencian Community ranks, however, high enough in the ranking of communities to say that it is a model that has been accepted, but not so high (at the level of communities or provinces) as to consider that there is an excess of supply. On the contrary, we said that, given the political situation in Spain, demand is likely to follow an upward trend to the detriment of Catalonia.

The data from Alicante. Comparisons are useful, not odious.

Now that we have defined the Valencian Community as an interesting region for the Airbnb market, let's see what the province of Alicante offers us. As always, we will put the data on the table.

The map is interactive again, and you can access the profile of each of the properties on Airbnb by clicking on each of the locations on the map or on its registration number located below the columns of the table.

Eight properties bring in more than €100,000 in the province of Alicante

To assess the data with a bit of perspective, it is worth taking a look at the post in which we talked about the homes with the highest income in Valencia.

We immediately realize that they are two completely different worlds. In Alicante, the properties with the highest income are located outside the city, most of them in the coastal area between Jávea and Altea.

On the other hand, while in the case of Valencia we were talking about 6 properties with gross income of between €60,000 and €90,000, here things change a lot, since we move on to studying 8 properties with more than €100,000 in annual gross income.

Looking at the location of the properties, it might seem, then, that this income derives from strongly seasonal tourism. 

Of course, in some of the properties we can see a strong contrast between some months of the year and others.  But in general terms a fairly stable and continuous average of monthly income is maintained. In fact, although they are properties relatively close to the beach, they offer the possibility of enjoying the same options as the beach, or more, but in a private setting.

Size DOES matter.

What does remain the same, despite the change in the type of geographic location, is the type of dwelling. If you visit the profile of the properties on Airbnb, you will see that, just like those that generated the most income in the province of Valencia, they are large properties, with many bedrooms and bathrooms, which also include many additional amenities, such as a swimming pool, a barbecue, a jacuzzi, or leisure items such as foosball or even volleyball.

The target audience is groups of people whose intention is not to spend much time away from the house. Family gatherings or groups of friends, who want to enjoy the amenities the property offers all together.

The homes that succeed in the Airbnb business are not intended for rest, but for pure, unadulterated leisure; and the greater the range of it on offer, the higher the income tends to be, with no guarantee of a return.

And if we add large spaces to this, so much the better.  Hence, in this case we are not dealing with apartments, but with large villas.

And this is the main difference between the two provinces and probably the direct cause of the Alicante villas generating higher gross income. 

The greater the accommodation capacity, the higher the gross income of these properties tends to be; this does not imply that the investment is profitable.

Brickstarter is a real estate investment platform specialized in tourist apartments. (If you want to keep up to date with all our publications, don't forget to sign up for our newsletter).

Past or estimated returns do not guarantee future returns. Investing involves a risk of total or partial loss of the invested capital.