Kitchen Renovation on Costa Blanca: Prices, Lead Times and the Open-Plan Question

What kitchens cost by layout

Layout	Run length	Typical total	What that includes
Straight run	3 m	from €8,500	Units, laminate worktop, sink, basic appliances
L-shaped	4–5 m	€13,000–17,000	Units, quartz worktop, integrated appliances
U-shaped	6–7 m	€17,000–22,000	As above with more storage and a tall unit run
With island	5 m + island	€22,000–32,000	Island with services, extraction, stone surfaces

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, a technician's calculation, a signed project and an obra mayor licence. €4,000–6,000 all in, and add several weeks for the paperwork.

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:

1. Design and measure — 1 week
2. Cabinet production — 3–6 weeks, longer for non-standard colours and July–August orders
3. Site preparation — plumbing, electrics, tiling, done while cabinets are being made
4. Cabinet installation — 2–4 days
5. Worktop templating — after cabinets are in, never before
6. Worktop production and fitting — 7–12 days after templating
7. 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 for replacing a kitchen in place — minor works declaration. Yes, obra mayor, if you remove a load-bearing wall to open it up, or move the kitchen to a different room, which changes the drainage layout.

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.