Buying property in Jávea: planning, water and drains

Buying property in Jávea: the old town, port and Arenal, a planning base from 1990, the town's own water, villas without mains drains and holiday-let rules.

What you will learn

How the old town, the port, the Arenal and the hills differ
Why the 1990 plan matters for any extension or new build
Water, drains and the holiday-let rules for villas and flats

Buying property in Jávea starts with a choice between very different places: the old town inland, the port, the sandy Arenal, and the residential areas on the slopes of the Montgó and along the coast. Jávea, Xàbia in Valencian, had 30,642 registered residents on 1 January 2025, according to INE, the Spanish statistics office. Two local questions deserve attention before any viewing: the planning rules, which still rest on a plan from 1990, and the drains, because many villas are not connected to the mains sewer.

Old town, port, Arenal and the Montgó

The town's official tourism site presents the port, Duanes de la Mar, and the Arenal beach, a beach of very fine sand in the centre of the bay, with shops and restaurants along its promenade. The old town sits inland. Above it all rises the Montgó, a limestone massif of 753 metres and a natural park between Dénia and Jávea, as Spain's official tourism site notes. Coves such as Cala Granadella and Cala Barraca, also called Portitxol, complete the coast.

Most property in Jávea is villas, many on generous plots, with apartments around the port and the Arenal. Each part feels different. The port and the old town are lived in all year, the Arenal is busiest in summer, and the hillside areas on the Montgó, around Lluca or towards Cap de la Nao are quieter and depend on the car. The first question is how you want to live. The house comes after.

Buying property in Jávea: the 1990 plan

Jávea's last general plan was approved on 31 January 1990. The town hall began revising it in 2011. That revision, called the Plan General Estructural, was still in progress when the Generalitat partly suspended the 1990 plan in March 2021 and, in September 2021, approved urgent transitional planning rules (normas urbanísticas transitorias de urgencia) for the municipality, as the Consell's agreement in the DOGV records.

For a buyer, this means the rules for one plot can differ from those of the plot next to it. They need to be read for that plot, by the architect or the lawyer, before an offer, especially if you plan to extend, rebuild or build new. Ask the town hall for the planning information on the plot in writing, and allow for licence times when you plan works. Our overview of building permits and the seven phases of a build explain what follows. This is general information only: an independent lawyer should confirm the position of the house you choose.

Water and drains

Jávea is supplied by AMJASA, the town's publicly owned water company, founded in 1977 and the only supplier in the municipality. Its desalination plant opened in spring 2002 with a capacity of 27,000 cubic metres a day. That gives the town a source of water of its own, which not every town on this coast has.

Drains are a different story. When it commissioned the first projects to extend the sewer network in 2019, the town hall acknowledged that thousands of homes were not connected. The first new collectors were planned for the Montgó, Lluca and Cap de la Nao. For any villa, ask whether it is on the mains sewer. If it has a septic tank, ask for its age, condition and legal status, and budget for emptying and eventual replacement.

Holiday lets: villas and apartments differ

Holiday letting is where villas and apartments part ways. In September 2025 the town's planning committee proposed to extend for six months the suspension of compatibility reports for tourist lets in apartment buildings, while not continuing it for detached houses and townhouses. In June 2026 the initial approval of a change to the general plan to regulate tourist dwellings was published, together with a suspension of new compatibility for tourist lets in apartment buildings across the municipality. A detached villa can still apply under the regional rules. An apartment bought for holiday letting faces a closed door for now. The rules are moving, so have the position confirmed by an independent lawyer when you decide.

As elsewhere on this coast, prices on property portals are asking prices, not sale prices. Prices from real sales signed before a notary can be explored on the notaries' statistics portal.

In Jávea, check three things before you fall for a view: what the planning allows on that plot, how the house is drained, and, if you want to let it, whether it is a house or an apartment. Then look at the property for sale in Jávea on our site, each one checked by us before you visit.

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Jávea

Written by Nicolas Strebel.