Kitchen Renovation on Costa Blanca: Prices, Lead Times and the Open-Plan Question
A new kitchen here is priced by the length of the cabinet run: from €800 per linear metre at Standard finish to €1,800 at Luxury. The number that matters more than price is lead time — cabinets and worktops are made to order.
A new kitchen on Costa Blanca is priced by the length of the cabinet run: €800 per linear metre at Standard finish, €1,350 at Premium and €1,800 at Luxury, before IVA. A straight 3 m kitchen at Standard is €2,400; a 5 m L-shape at Premium is €6,750. Allow 6–10 weeks from order to installation — cabinets and worktops are made to order, not taken off a shelf. Opening the kitchen into the living room adds €1,500–6,000 depending on whether the wall carries load.
What kitchens cost by layout
| Layout | Run length | Standard €800/m | Premium €1,350/m | Luxury €1,800/m |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Straight run | 3 m | €2,400 | €4,050 | €5,400 |
| L-shaped | 4–5 m | €3,200–4,000 | €5,400–6,750 | €7,200–9,000 |
| U-shaped | 6–7 m | €4,800–5,600 | €8,100–9,450 | €10,800–12,600 |
| With island | 5 m + 2 m island | €5,600 | €9,450 | €12,600 |
Appliances are the most elastic line in any kitchen. The same cabinets with entry-level appliances against German brands is a €4,000–7,000 swing on a mid-sized kitchen, and it changes nothing about the installation work.
Choosing a worktop
This is where people spend the longest and get the least clear advice. Practical comparison for a Spanish coastal home:
| Material | Price per linear m | Reality |
|---|---|---|
| Laminate | €90–180 | Fine for a rental. Fails at the sink cut-out eventually. |
| Compact / porcelain | €280–450 | Heat and UV resistant, thin profile, excellent on a terrace-facing kitchen. |
| Quartz | €300–500 | The default for a reason: consistent, hard, no sealing needed. Avoid direct sun on darker colours. |
| Granite | €280–480 | Durable and traditional. Each slab differs — see the actual slab, not a sample. |
| Natural marble | €400–800 | Beautiful and demanding. It will stain with lemon and wine. Choose it knowing that. |
The open-plan question
Most Costa Blanca properties built before 2005 have a closed kitchen, and most owners want to open it. Whether that is a €1,500 job or a €6,000 one depends entirely on one thing: is the wall structural?
- Partition wall. Non-load-bearing, usually a single skin of hollow brick. Remove it, make good the floor and ceiling, done. €1,500–2,500.
- Load-bearing wall. Needs a steel or concrete beam and a technician's calculation; the declaración responsable is filed with a certificate from an architect or engineer. €4,000–6,000 all in, and allow time for the certificate.
You cannot tell reliably by tapping. In apartment blocks and terraced villas here, the wall between kitchen and living room is load-bearing more often than people expect. That check is the first thing we do, because it decides both the budget and the timeline.
Worth saying plainly: an open kitchen means cooking smells reach the sofa. In a climate where you fry fish and cook with garlic, extraction stops being a specification detail and becomes the thing that makes the room liveable. Budget for a proper extractor ducted outside, not a recirculating one.
Lead times, and why they matter more than price
The kitchen itself is a manufactured product with a queue:
- Design and measure — 1 week
- Cabinet production — 3–6 weeks, longer for non-standard colours and July–August orders
- Site preparation — plumbing, electrics, tiling, done while cabinets are being made
- Cabinet installation — 2–4 days
- Worktop templating — after cabinets are in, never before
- Worktop production and fitting — 7–12 days after templating
- Final connections and appliances — 1 day
Note steps 5 and 6. The worktop cannot be measured until the cabinets are physically installed and level, which means there is always a gap of a week or two with a working kitchen that has no surface. This is normal, it is not a delay, and knowing about it in advance stops it feeling like one.
Mistakes we see most often
- Buying appliances before the design is final. An oversized American fridge bought in a sale dictates the whole layout — usually badly.
- Sockets decided last. Kitchen sockets should be planned around where the kettle, coffee machine and air fryer will actually stand. After tiling, adding one is a scar.
- Under-lighting. One ceiling light for a whole kitchen is standard in older Spanish properties and is genuinely poor for cooking. Under-cabinet lighting costs little and changes the room.
- Ignoring the terrace door. If the kitchen opens onto a terrace, a cabinet door and a terrace door will eventually collide. Check the swing on the drawing.
Questions we get asked
Can I keep the existing cabinets and just change the doors and worktop?
Yes, if the carcasses are sound and the layout works. It costs roughly 40–55% of a full new kitchen and takes a fraction of the time. It is a genuinely good option for a rental property or a kitchen from the 2000s that is dated rather than broken. It is a poor option if the units are chipboard that has already swollen at the base — which, near the coast, plenty are.
Do I need a licence for a new kitchen?
Not a full licence. Replacing a kitchen goes by a declaración responsable filed with the town hall, and work can start the same day. If you remove a load-bearing wall to open it up, the declaration needs a certificate from an architect or engineer.
Induction or gas on Costa Blanca?
Induction, in most cases. Bottled gas means storing and swapping cylinders, mains gas is not available in many urbanisations, and induction is safer in a house that sits empty for months. The one caveat is your electrical supply: induction plus air conditioning plus a pool pump can exceed a small contracted supply, and increasing it has its own cost and paperwork.
How long is the kitchen out of action?
From strip-out to a fully working kitchen, two to three weeks on site. From the day you order, six to ten weeks, most of which the old kitchen still works. We time the strip-out for when the cabinets are ready, not before.
Working out your kitchen
The kitchen page has a calculator that asks about layout, run length, worktop and appliances, and returns a planning price. If you are weighing up opening the wall, send a photo of the kitchen and the room behind it — that is usually enough for us to say whether it is the cheap version or the expensive one.
Planning this on your own property?
Send the address and a few photos. We will tell you what is realistic, what it costs and what has to be checked on site — before any commitment.