Benidorm plans Europe's tallest residential skyscraper

Benidorm plans Europe's tallest residential skyscraper

Benidorm's Poniente beach is about to change its skyline. TM Tower, developed by the Torrevieja-based TM group, is billed as Europe's tallest residential skyscraper: 64 floors, 260 one- to four-bedroom homes and more than 10,000 square metres of communal areas with heated pools, gym, cinema room and sports areas. The declared investment is around €140 million.

Prices are the project's other skyscraper. The sales range goes from €500,000 to €3.5 million, depending on the number of bedrooms and the height. The average ticket declared so far stands at one million euros, and the company expects it to rise as marketing opens. On the first day, 31 homes were purchased; in two days, 40. The top habitable floor sold for €2,750,000.

What a million euros buys on the front line

The argument that sustains the prices is not the land, it's the climate. Spain is the world's leading tourist destination and the province of Alicante has eleven Michelin-starred restaurants, as recalled in the discussion. The combination of sun, reasonable safety, acceptable healthcare and gastronomic offerings is hard to match in Europe, and those with money to spend on a second home don't look at Spanish CPI: they look at the sea view.

Some compare it to what is already being asked in other cities. In Bilbao, developments of 50 to 80 square metres with garage are advertised between €350,000 and €650,000, with apartment layouts and bedrooms of eleven square metres, according to a message in the thread. In Madrid, Valencia or Barcelona, any new development starts at €300,000 or €400,000, and used housing from €200,000, as argued in the debate. Against that backdrop, €500,000 for a flat in a seafront skyscraper doesn't seem an anomaly, but the tip of a series.

The problem isn't the penthouse, it's what doesn't exist for €100,000

The most repeated objection doesn't point to luxury, it points to the gap left below. If there is demand for million-euro apartments, someone will buy them. The problem is that there is no decent housing in cities for €80,000 or €100,000. The luxury market doesn't evict anyone from a flat that never existed, but it does set a price ceiling that drags the rest of the scale.

Add to that the small print of living in such a complex. The 10,000 square metres of communal areas are shared among the 260 homes, so the cadastral area of each flat can exceed twice its usable area, according to a calculation circulating in the thread. Translation: higher property tax (IBI) and a community with several heated pools, gym and cinema room that must be maintained all year. The full calculation, item by item, gives a monthly figure that surprises more than one, according to that same calculation.

Is it a bubble or the international market?

Both readings coexist without reconciling. Part of the analysis sees euphoria, excess and an operation impossible to justify with local real estate fundamentals: prices would be paid to impress a foreign buyer, not because the asset is worth it. Another part responds that the buyer is international, can afford it, and that in any country beachfront multiplies the price of the equivalent cheap area by five or ten. If a used 60-square-metre flat with garage costs €260,000 in a provincial capital, a luxury seafront flat for €500,000 is almost a bargain.

The shadow no one dispels is the origin of the money. That 31 homes sell in a day in a city that is neither London nor Dubai invites the question of how much of that demand is retired European wealth and how much is something else. The doubt is raised, not resolved.

The precedent no one wants to repeat

Benidorm already lived its first golden age of brick and the result was a vertical skyline unique in Spain, with defenders and detractors in equal measure. High-rise development is championed as an efficient model: it concentrates population, frees up land and sustains low-season tourism that turns the city into a Mediterranean paradise outside July and August. It is also criticised: beaches saturated in summer, prices that drive out residents and a strange feeling around everything promoted in the area.

The Spanish real estate sector is enjoying a second golden age, as stated in the debate. The question is how long it will last this time. And whether by the time we know, the flats will already be sold.