The complete area guide for Punta Prima, Costa Blanca

One of South Costa Blanca's more notable communities, Punta Prima is a coastal Mediterranean headland that borders the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

Punta Prima is comprised of several individual neighbouring urbanisations including La Florida, Los Almendros, and Urb Ceñuela La I communities, with only 0.67 km2 of the total original residential area located beachside of the N-332.

The locale is popular year-round as a holiday destination for domestic and international tourists, attracted by the immediate proximity to the Orihuela Costa's fine sandy beaches and an abundance of quality leisure facilities located within the community.

The majority of the population consists of mostly English-speaking and Northern European expatriates who have settled in Punta Prima, and the central location, excellent transport links, and short travel times to surrounding popular destinations have ensured the community's continued popularity.

LOCATION

Punta Prima is located on the eastern coast of Spain, intersecting the municipalities of Orihuela Costa to the south, and the outskirts of Torrevieja immediately to the north.

The town is bordered by Los Almendros and La Florida immediately to the west, Playa Flamenca to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the east.

Divided unequally by the tree-lined Avenida de las Olas, Punta Prima falls under the jurisdiction of either Orihuela Town Hall or Torrevieja City Council.

For instance, the Restaurante Nautilus falls under the jurisdiction of Torrevieja, but the beach it overlooks, Cala Piteras, is a part of the Orihuela Costa region.

Corvera-Murcia Airport and Alicante-Elche International Airport are practically equidistant, with each international transport hub comfortably reached in less than one hour by car.

HISTORY

Until 1969 Punta Prima was nothing more than parched scrubland bordered by a narrow strip of sand.

Sheltered on the northwestern side by a steep cliff that rendered Punta Prima's beach practically inaccessible to all but the most able-bodied, the location nevertheless proved popular with residents from nearby Torrevieja, attracted by its remote location and the shelter provided during the springtime and autumnal months.

The first residential developments started to appear in the late sixties and the inaugural property developers apportioned the neglected scrubland into generously sized individual building plots.

Inspired by the nearby Elche Palmeral, the city's extensive Roman palm gardens, the early real estate developers pioneered the extensive use of Mexican fan palms and Alexandra King palm trees specifically selected for their rapid growth rate, robust nature, and their ability to survive in coastal regions.

Each plot was lavishly adorned with greenery, and plots were typically delivered with moderately sized single-storey villas set within opulent gardens that emphasised the natural value of the abundant Mediterranean living space.

Avenues were generously wide and tree-lined, and the visibly low-impact housing was sparsely distributed throughout what soon became a garden oasis on the edge of urban Torrevieja.

The 1970s saw little change for Punta Prima except for the arrival of Restaurante Nautilus on the fringe of Punta Prima's smaller Cala Piteras beach in 1975, and it wasn´t until the late 1980s that the locale began to experience commercial development, with new-build apartments toward the north of the area along Avenida de las Olas.

In fact, it wasn't until as recently as 2007 that building work began moving inland, and new developments began to fill the remaining open spaces along the seafront.

The Punta Marina commercial centre opened the same year complementing the parade of local shops that already provided essential amenities to residents and visitors adjacent to the N-332 coast road.

The original streets remain wide and tree-lined, and the enduring legacy of the pioneering developers can still be seen today, highlighted by an area that stands out for its verdant natural richness and diverse Mediterranean fauna.

GEOGRAPHY

The Punta Prima area is typified by a low-lying coastal topography, accompanied by shallow cliffs, and gentle slopes throughout.

The community benefits from a healthy Mediterranean micro-climate, characterised by relatively low annual rainfall, and an average of 320 days of sunshine each year with a median annual temperature of 19.8°c.

Long warm summers and short dry winters are emblematic of this part of the Costa Blanca, and visitors to the area from June through to September can expect temperatures to vary between 25°c at night to 35°c during the day.

Somewhat sheltered by the city of Torrevieja to the north of the region, Punta Prima experiences the cooling effects of being immediately adjacent to a warm body of seawater during the summer, but with the benefit of additional protection from the northerly autumnal winds.

The community is unusually rich in Mediterranean flora and fauna, and large parts of the surrounding areas to the north and south of Punta Prima remain untouched and in their natural state.

FACILITIES

Punta Prima boasts two beautiful beaches. Cala Piteras lies to the north of the community adjacent to Restaurante Nautilus and provides a small crescent of soft sand some 123 metres long at the waterline.

By contrast, Playa de Punta Prima is a thin sheltered strip measuring 234 metres at the waterline offering 6,552 m² of pristine sands. The Paseo Maritimo promenade wraps behind the beach providing a pedestrian and cycle route to neighbouring beachfront locations.

The beach's southeast-facing aspect guarantees sunshine for the majority of the day, unlike most of the surrounding east-facing beaches which offer plenty of sun first thing in the morning, waning as the day progresses.

The cliff that traditionally rendered the beach relatively inaccessible has been bypassed by the installation of a lift toward the west end of the beach. Very few beaches in the southeast of Spain can boast such a luxury, and the lift makes it easy for families and persons of limited mobility to reach the golden sands below.

Playa de Punta Prima hosts a Chiringuito beach bar, first-aid services, and a lifeguard during the summer season.

Aside from the Chiringuito and the Restaurante Punta Prima that overlooks the beach, services are sparse close to the coastline.

Instead, visitors will find a wide variety of local shops, bars, and restaurants located in a commercial centre beside the N-332 coast road. The Punta Marina commercial centre opposite sports additional amenities including a Consum supermarket.

Further southward, the Centro Comercial La Campana supports a selection of local businesses including the Style House furniture superstore. The Zeniamar shopping centre provides essential doorstep amenities to residents away from the coastline, including a variety of restaurants and casual cafés.

Immediately visible during a southbound approach from Torrevieja, the 3-star Hotel Torrejoven is the only commercial hotel in Punta Prima. The hotel provides mid-priced rooms, with an outdoor pool, a business centre, and a restaurant on-site.

Public transport offers frequent services, with local scheduled buses connecting Punta Prima to the neighbouring beachfront towns of Campoamor, Cabo Roig, La Zenia, and Playa Flamenca, with onward northerly services to the city of Torrevieja and the main hospital.

Property owners benefit from Punta Prima's location on the city's urban periphery, and super-fast internet connections are widely available from several commercial businesses focusing on providing superb digital connectivity.

Locally, Olé Comunicación in La Zenia offers competitive packages whilst NoLimitNet in Los Dolses offers high-speed internet connections via WiMax or fibre-optic up to 1.000 Mb with prices from just €25 per month, with a range of landline and television packages for English, Scandinavian, and Russian TV viewers.

PROPERTIES

The area that lies toward the coast, locally known as Jardín del Mar Playa, is where you´ll find the original properties that date as far back as 1969. Typically medium-sized single-storey villas occupy comparatively large plots.

More recent developments beachside have focused on the provision of apartments with modern complexes such as Panorama Park, Punta Prima La Recoleta, or the upscale Sea Senses beach resort.

New build apartments close to the beach command premium prices, but there are still some bargains to be found if buyers are willing to turn their attention further inland, particularly toward developments in La Ciñuelica, Ceñuela La I, Punta Marina, or properties located toward the southern boundary of Los Altos.

These communities offer mainly modest properties with prices still starting comfortably below 130.000€, an abundance of choice, and often superior local services, but remain a reasonable walking distance from Punta Prima's popular beach areas.

Prices for detached beachfront property typically start around 400.000€ and run to millions of Euros for luxury homes boasting a first-line sea view. Prices for well-located apartments tend to start at around 150.000€.

Apartments and townhouses somewhat further inland provide cheaper options for overseas property buyers, and a modest one-bedroom apartment within easy reach of local amenities can be found for as little as 110.000€.

With the notable exception of Punta Prima's eastern coastline, the local skyline is typically low-rise and mostly limited to two-storey properties. Newer-style apartment complexes constructed on the Mediterranean front line can reach from six to ten storeys in height.

Having experienced fifty years of building and construction Punta Prima is well developed and most new build activity currently takes place in Urb. Ceñuela La I and within a handful of land parcels towards the coastline.

However, Punta Prima is bordered by a large area of undeveloped land toward its southern periphery, with new property development now (somewhat controversially) underway on the last natural coastal parcel of land in Orihuela Costa.

This land is located along the Mediterranean coast between the southern boundary of Punta Prima and the northern reaches of Playa Flamenca and is included in Orihuela Town Hall's master plan for future residential development first laid out nearly 30 years ago in 1990.

Indeed, Google Earth reveals an outline network of established roads and abandoned tracks that run behind Cala Cabo Peñas (complete with electrical substations), connecting Playa Flamenca's Cala Mosca beach area directly with Playa Punta Prima to the north.

The Town Hall authorised the construction of 1,500 new homes in 2019, giving the go-ahead for the last remaining area of rocky headland east of Playa de Punta Prima to be developed for large-scale residential housing, subject to the preservation of the architectural remains of the early 20th Century Spanish Army barracks.

SUMMARY

Punta Prima is very popular with tourists all year and has a large population of full-time residents from various cultural nationalities – this means that the shops, bars, and restaurants are full of life whether it is summer or winter.

The area has an established and busy year-round social scene, with a wide range of sporting and leisure clubs, charities, and associations in Punta Prima and neighbouring residential communities.

The town is a family-friendly year-round holiday destination that will suit property buyers looking to enjoy a suite of first-class facilities, a historically safe environment with a low recorded crime rate, and a central location that sports relatively close proximity to a choice of airports whilst remaining entirely free of regular flight traffic.

Generally, properties in Punta Prima command a premium price for the prestigious location, and overseas property buyers looking for good value and cheaper prices will need to do their homework and consider looking further inland.

That said, many people will consider that the abundant quality amenities, excellent transport links, the central Costa Blanca location, and immediate access to manicured Blue Flag beaches are worth paying that little extra for.

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Data included in the graphics are correct at the date of publication. Price per square metre is for illustration only, and calculated from the prices of resale properties available on our website at that time. For official market data, please contact us.