The sun is real. The sea views are real. The defects behind the fresh paint are real too. In 2026, Verify Home Inspector’s new-build reports on the Costa Blanca have recorded an average of 70 defects per brand-new home, with a serious defect in more than nine out of ten properties and a median repair bill of over 11,000 euros. For the thousands of British, Polish, German, French, Dutch and Scandinavian families buying new homes in Orihuela Costa, Torrevieja, San Miguel de Salinas, Alicante and Benidorm, the message from the firm’s court expert witnesses is simple: love Spain, but do not trust the handover. Have your home inspected by an independent expert before the guarantee clock runs out.
The dream everyone in Europe wants
Ask anyone in Warsaw, Manchester, Düsseldorf or Lyon in February what they dream of, and the answer often sounds like the Costa Blanca. More than 300 days of sunshine a year, winters you can spend on a terrace, beaches with Blue Flags, fresh fish, long lunches and neighbours who say good morning. It is no surprise that, according to the Spanish Land Registrars’ 2025 yearbook, 43.29 % of all homes bought in the province of Alicante were bought by foreign nationals. That is the highest share in Spain and more than three times the national average.
Most of those buyers choose new builds. They want the modern kitchen, the communal pool, the underground parking and the peace of mind of a home nobody has lived in before. And the developers are building at full speed. In 2025 the province of Alicante started 11,011 new homes, according to the Official Association of Building Engineers of Alicante. Torrevieja alone started 1,184, Benidorm 682, Alicante city 677, San Miguel de Salinas 674 and Orihuela, home of Orihuela Costa, 505. The Vega Baja district accounted for 3,894, more than a third of the whole province.
The part of the dream nobody shows you
Building that fast has a price, and it is usually paid by the buyer. Subcontractors change from one block to the next. Finishing trades are squeezed into the last weeks before the handover date. Site managers juggle several developments at once. The result is a home that looks perfect on the day you collect the keys and starts to show its problems with the first autumn storm, the first summer of air conditioning or the first time you open every window.
Verify Home Inspector has analysed the new-build reception reports it issued in 2026 in the provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Seville. These are the figures:
- 70 defects per brand-new home on average. The best home had 34. The worst had 137.
- More than 9 out of 10 homes had at least one serious defect: something that affects safety, lets water in or stops an installation from working.
- 11,314 euros, VAT included, was the median cost of repairing everything documented in a home.
- More than 6 out of 10 valued homes needed over 10,000 euros of repairs.
These are not old houses. They are homes delivered weeks earlier, sold as «ready to move in», with a glossy specifications brochure promising high-end finishes. The defects repeat across developers and across towns: sliding doors that come off their tracks, shower trays that drain towards the bathroom floor, terraces where the water pools against the doorframe, air-conditioning units sealed behind ceilings with no access hatch, front doors that let daylight through, tiles that sound hollow, railings below the legal height and missing insulation.
«Our foreign clients always ask the same thing: how can a brand-new home have seventy defects? The answer is speed. The good news is that Spanish law is very clear about who has to pay to fix them. The bad news is that the developer will not tell you, and the clock is already running.»
Expert team, Verify Home Inspector
The good news: Spanish law protects you, if you act in time
Spain may build fast, but its building and consumer laws give new-home buyers strong protection, and Spanish courts enforce them. A buyer of a new home has three legal guarantees under the Building Act (Ley 38/1999 de Ordenación de la Edificación, article 17), and the developer is liable to the buyer together with the builder and the technical team:
| Guarantee | What it covers | Time limit |
|---|---|---|
| Finishing defects | Poor workmanship in finishes: tiles, paint, doors, windows, sealing, fittings | 1 year |
| Habitability defects | Defects in installations and elements that affect habitability: damp, leaks, insulation, waterproofing | 3 years |
| Structural defects | Damage to foundations, beams, pillars, slabs and load-bearing walls | 10 years |
On top of that, everything promised in the sales brochure and the specifications document, the «memoria de calidades», is legally binding even if it is not copied into your contract (Spanish consumer law, article 61). If the brochure promised an access hatch for the air conditioning, underfloor heating or a particular brand of window, the developer has to deliver it.
Read the first row of that table again. The guarantee that covers most of the defects found in a new home lasts one year, and it starts counting from the acceptance of the works, not from the day you move in. Many foreign buyers spend that first year coming and going, living in the home for a few weeks at a time, and only realise what is wrong when the guarantee has expired. Then the developer’s after-sales department, which was so friendly during the sale, stops answering emails.
Why an independent court expert, and not just an inspector
A list of defects written by a friend, a handyman or a snagging app is useful for you. For the developer, it is an opinion that can be ignored. A report signed by a Spanish court expert witness (perito judicial) is different. It describes each defect technically, explains why it is a defect, grades its severity, proposes the repair and puts a price on it. It is written to be handed to the developer, and if the developer refuses to repair, it is written to be presented to a Spanish judge.
Verify Home Inspector is a team of court expert witnesses based in Torrevieja. We are local, we know the developments, the materials and the trades of the Costa Blanca, and we work only for the buyer. We do not work for developers, estate agents, banks or builders, and we do not earn commissions from anyone. Our firm belongs to the Spanish Association of Court Expert Witnesses (AEPEJU, membership number 810) and holds professional liability insurance of up to 450,000 euros.
Three legal specialisations, three answers you need
What makes Verify Home Inspector different from other inspectors is that each part of our report is backed by a specific legal qualification. A buyer needs three answers, and we are qualified to give all three:
| Specialisation | What it legally qualifies us to do | The question it answers for you |
|---|---|---|
| Court expert witness in real estate (Perito judicial inmobiliario) |
Assess and value properties, analyse the local market, the area and the condition of the home as a whole | Is this home worth what I paid, and is the area right for me? |
| Court expert witness in renovation works and faulty workmanship (Perito judicial en obras de reforma y trabajos mal efectuados) |
Determine and classify what constitutes poorly executed work, grade its severity and define the correct technical solution | What has been built badly, how serious is it and how should it be fixed? |
| Court expert witness in fire and miscellaneous risks (Perito judicial en incendios y riesgos diversos, IRD) |
Measure, assess and put a monetary value on damage in buildings, item by item, at real market prices | How much will it cost to put everything right? |
Put together, those three qualifications turn a list of complaints into a legal document: what is wrong, why it is wrong, and how much it costs to fix. That is the document a developer cannot ignore. Please note that our experts are court expert witnesses, not architects. Our inspection is non-destructive: we do not lift floors or open walls, and anything we cannot access is recorded as such in the report.
What we check in your new home
A new-build inspection takes several hours and covers the whole home, the terraces, the storage room and the parking space, and the specifications you were promised. We use moisture meters, a thermal imaging camera, a crack gauge, a two-metre straightedge, a level and a socket tester. Among other things, we check:
- Every window, sliding door and shutter: opening, closing, locks, seals, drainage of the tracks and thermal break.
- Terraces and solariums: slope towards the drains, waterproofing, door thresholds, railing height and the joints with the façade.
- Bathrooms and kitchen: water pressure, hot water, drainage of every appliance, sealing of shower trays and screens, extraction and ventilation.
- Floors and wall tiles: hollow tiles, cracked pieces, uneven joints and level differences.
- Electricity, air conditioning and plumbing: consumer unit, earth connection, every socket, condensate drains and access to the indoor units.
- The front door, internal doors and fitted wardrobes.
- Everything in the specifications document, point by point, to see whether what you received matches what you paid for.
Every defect gets its own number, a close-up photograph and a location photograph, a technical description, a severity grade and the repair it needs. When you order the valuation, each defect also gets its repair cost, item by item, with the unit price visible, never as a lump sum. The full list of checks is published on our page what we inspect.
How it works if you live abroad
- Book the inspection after you receive your keys. You do not need to be in Spain. Many clients leave a set of keys with a neighbour, a property manager or their lawyer.
- We inspect the home, take hundreds of photographs and record every defect against the specifications you were promised.
- You receive the report by email, with every defect numbered, graded and, if you order it, valued. We can deliver it in English.
- You send it to the developer, by email and by registered fax (burofax), and ask for the repairs within the one-year guarantee.
- If the developer refuses or repairs badly, the report already contains the cost of every repair, so you can claim the money. Our expert can ratify the report and defend it in court.
Many developers repair once they receive a professional report, because they know what happens if the case reaches a judge. That is the real value of the inspection: it changes the conversation from «please could you have a look» to «here is what the law obliges you to fix».
Where we work
Our base is in Torrevieja, a few minutes from the developments of Orihuela Costa and San Miguel de Salinas, and we cover the whole province of Alicante, including Alicante city and Benidorm. Each area has its own typical problems: salt air that attacks railings and air-conditioning units on the coast, large solariums and flat roofs in the Vega Baja developments, and high-rise apartments with long façades and many terraces in Benidorm. More details on our pages for home inspection in Torrevieja and home inspection in Alicante.
Questions foreign buyers ask us
My home is brand new. Why would it need an inspection?
Because «new» does not mean «correct». In 2026 our new-build reports found an average of 70 defects per home, and more than nine out of ten homes had at least one serious defect. Most of them cannot be seen in a quick walk-through on handover day.
The developer already did a final check with me. Is that not enough?
The developer’s checklist is written by the developer. An independent expert works only for you and checks what the developer has no interest in finding: hidden water problems, missing items from the specifications, incorrect slopes and installations that do not meet the regulations.
When is the best time to inspect?
As soon as possible after you receive your keys, and always within the first year. The one-year guarantee for finishing defects is counted from the acceptance of the works, which is usually earlier than your handover, so every week counts.
Will the report be valid in a Spanish court?
Yes. The inspection report can be converted into a formal expert report for court proceedings for 199 euros plus VAT, and our expert can attend court to ratify and defend it.
Do I need to travel to Spain?
No. You only need to arrange access to the home. We send you the report and the photographs by email wherever you are.
Enjoy the sun. Let us deal with the defects.
You chose Spain for the climate, the beaches, the food and the people. You should not have to spend your first years here chasing a developer about leaks, cracked tiles and doors that do not close. Ask for your quote on our page request a quote, read more about our new-build snagging inspection, or learn how our expert reports and damage valuations work.
About Verify Home Inspector. Verify Home Inspector® is a registered trademark of home inspection and court expert witness services based in Torrevieja (Alicante) and Seville. Its experts are court expert witnesses in real estate, in renovation works and faulty workmanship, and in fire and miscellaneous risks, members of AEPEJU (No. 810), with professional liability insurance of up to 450,000 euros. The firm inspects new builds before and after handover, resale homes before purchase and rental properties, and issues expert reports for claims and court proceedings.
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