How much is my home worth?

Your home is worth what an informed buyer will pay for it today, and that number comes from comparing what has actually sold in your area in recent months with homes like yours, then adjusting for what yours has more or less of. It does not come from what your neighbours are asking on the portals: those are asking prices, and they rarely match what gets signed.

Asking price, sale price, bank valuation or reference value?

Four different figures.

Two points. The reference value is not a valuation of your home: nobody from the Cadastre has visited it. You can look it up on the Cadastre's online office; it tells the buyer what tax they will pay, not what you should ask. And the mortgage valuation comes once there is a buyer: if it comes in below the agreed price, the bank lends less and the deal wobbles.

Why do the portals show prices that are not sale prices?

Because a portal only knows what each owner asks, not what they sign. The sale price lives at the notary. What you see when you search «flats in my street» is a window of wishes.

The gap between the two has been measured. According to the Fotocasa Research report «Experiencia en compraventa en 2025», 52 % of buyers tried to negotiate, 83 % of those who did got a reduction and 77 % of those reductions were under 10 %. And according to Idealista, 14 % of sale listings cut their price in the first quarter of 2026 (20 % in Madrid and 18 % in Málaga).

That is why our valuations start from closed sales: our own transactions, those of the network of agencies we work with on the Costa del Sol, and notary and land registry data.

How is the price worked out from comparables?

You look for sales closed in recent months of homes as similar to yours as possible, then adjust for the differences, one factor at a time. What gets compared:

• Area and development: the same street or community if possible; failing that, the same neighbourhood and the same distance to the beach or the metro.
• Square metres: built and usable, and how they are laid out (a long corridor is worth less).
• Floor, lift and orientation.
• Outdoor space: terrace, garden and views, and whether they are genuinely usable or just on paper.
• Parking and storage: included or not, and whether they are on the same deed.
• Condition: brand new, renovated, ready to move into or in need of work.
• Year and building: age, build quality, community accounts in order, levies coming.

With three or four good, recent comparables you start from the price per square metre of each and correct it: a garage yours does not have, you deduct; a view the comparable does not have, you add. The result is a narrow range, and within it the asking price is chosen according to the sales strategy: how many buyers there are right now for your home, and how much of a hurry you are in.

What really adds value, and what adds less than you think?

It depends on where the home is. On the Costa del Sol the buyer pays for sea, light and terrace; in Madrid, for the street, the floor and the lift.

What happens if I price high? And if I price low?

Pricing high costs you money because interest is concentrated at the start. According to Idealista, of the homes sold in the first quarter of 2026, 13 % were listed for less than a week and 23 % sold before the first month was out: more than a third went in thirty days.

When your home goes live, buyers with alerts receive it that day, agents match it against their open requests and the portal shows it at the top because it is new. If the price is out of line, that first wave rules it out without visiting and does not come back. When you cut the price two months later, the listing sits lower down with a «price reduced» label: whoever sees it concludes it is not selling and waits for the next cut. The home has gone stale: it will sell, but later and often below where it would have closed at the start. There is no study in Spain that measures that loss; what we do know is that 14 % of listings cut their price in a single quarter of 2026 (Idealista).

Pricing low is harder to see: the home sells in days, with several offers, and nobody tells you what you left on the table. The asking price is neither «a bit high to leave room» nor «low to sell fast»: it is the one that brings in the first-weeks buyers and leaves room for a serious offer to close.

How does an international buyer read the price?

In their own currency, and it changes every week. According to the official rates published by the Bank of Spain, one euro cost 0.829 pounds on 26 February 2025 and 0.873 pounds on 31 December 2025: for a British buyer, the same home at the same euro price became 5 % more expensive in ten months without you touching anything. In Swedish kronor the opposite happened (from 11.14 to 10.82 per euro: the home got cheaper) and the Norwegian krone barely moved.

That is why a rise in their currency brings buyers to the coast and a fall holds them back, and why they negotiate in round numbers in their own currency: to them there is no difference between 495,000 and 500,000 euros if it reads the same in pounds. A sales strategy aimed at that buyer takes into account which currency they think in and when it suits them to close.

What does an architect see that an appraiser does not measure?

Three things, and all three move the price.

The real square metres. Deed, Cadastre and reality do not always agree: glazed-in terraces that are not registered, a porch that counts in the Cadastre but not at the Land Registry. We measure the home and tell you which metres you can defend and which are worth regularising first (documents for selling).

What could be done. A kitchen that could open onto the living room, a third bedroom that fits, a roof terrace that would take a penthouse with the right licence. The buyer pays for what they see and for what they understand they could do; with a sketch and an indicative cost, the conversation changes. That is the advantage of selling with an agency that also designs and renovates.

What the buyer will deduct. Damp, old installations, an unlicensed enclosure, levies on the way. The buyer, their lawyer and their appraiser spot them and take their cost off the price. If we know about them first, we decide with you what to fix, what to disclose and what to reflect in the price (how to prepare your home).

How does Grupo dhoce value a home, and what is it not?

Two or three days and four steps.

• Visit. An agent from your area and, when the home calls for it, an architect: we measure, photograph and note condition, views, building and what could be done.
• Comparables. Sales closed in recent months: our own transactions, those of the Costa del Sol agency network and notary and land registry data. Never listings alone.
• Report. A reasoned price range, factor by factor, with the comparables that support it. In writing and yours, whether you sell with us or not.
• Sales strategy. Asking price, what to prepare before the photos, which buyer it is aimed at and what to expect in the first weeks.

What it is not: an official valuation. For a mortgage, an inheritance or a divorce you need a report from an appraisal company approved by the Bank of Spain. Ours is for deciding what price your home comes out at and selling it in the weeks when the most people are looking, and it is without obligation.