Windows on Costa Blanca: Aluminium or PVC, and What It Costs to Replace Them

Most properties here built before 2007 have single-glazed aluminium windows with no thermal break. They were cheap, they last forever mechanically, and they are the single biggest reason your air conditioning runs all afternoon and the room is still warm.

What replacement costs

Opening	Typical size	Supplied and fitted
Bathroom window	60 × 60 cm	€280–420
Bedroom window	120 × 120 cm	€380–650
Living room window	150 × 120 cm	€520–850
Sliding terrace door, two panes	200 × 220 cm	€900–1,400
Large sliding door, three or four panes	300 × 220 cm	€1,600–2,900
Entrance door, security	90 × 210 cm	€1,200–2,600

Add €120–280 per opening if the reveal has to be rebuilt, which is common in older properties where the original frame was built into the masonry rather than fitted into it. Roller shutter boxes, if they are being replaced too, add €90–200 each.

Aluminium or PVC

The honest comparison for a coastal Spanish property:

	Aluminium with thermal break	PVC
Insulation	Good	Slightly better
Salt air resistance	Excellent with anodised or powder coat	Excellent
UV and heat	Unaffected	White is fine; dark colours can distort on a south façade
Frame width	Slim — more glass, more light	Chunkier — noticeably so on small windows
Large sliding doors	Yes, the standard choice	Limited by weight and span
Price	Reference	10–20% cheaper
Look in a Spanish villa	Matches the local architecture	Reads as northern European

Our default recommendation here is aluminium with a thermal break: it suits the architecture, it handles the sun, and it does the large sliding openings that make these houses what they are. PVC is a good, cheaper answer for standard-sized windows in an apartment, particularly in white.

The glass matters as much as the frame

A good frame with the wrong glass is wasted money. Three things to specify:

• Double glazing with a gas-filled cavity. Standard now, and the minimum worth fitting.
• Low-emissivity coating. Reflects heat back out in summer and in during winter. The cost difference is small; the difference in an afternoon-facing room is not.
• Solar control on south and west façades. On Costa Blanca this matters more than in northern Europe. A living room with 6 m² of west-facing glass and no solar control will be uncomfortable from four o'clock onward no matter how good the air conditioning is.

If a quote just says "double glazing" without specifying the coating, ask. That single line is where the difference between a comfortable room and a hot one usually hides.

Does it pay for itself?

Financially, slowly. In comfort, immediately. For a villa spending €1,400 a year on cooling and heating, good windows typically cut that by 25–35% — so €350–500 a year against a €7,000 spend. That is a fifteen-year payback on paper.

But the honest reason people do it is not the electricity bill. It is that the bedroom stops being 28°C at midnight, that the road noise drops away, and that the house stops feeling like it is fighting the climate. Those are worth more than the arithmetic suggests.

If you live in a community of owners

In an apartment or a townhouse within a comunidad, the façade is usually communal even though the window is yours. In practice that means the frame colour, and sometimes the shutter style, is fixed by the community statutes. Changing a white frame to anthracite grey on a communal façade without approval is the kind of thing that ends in a letter from the administrator and an order to change it back.

Check the statutes first. If they are silent, get the approval in writing at a meeting before ordering — frames are made to order and cannot be returned.

Questions we get asked

Do I need a licence to change windows?

Replacing like for like within the same opening is minor works — a declaration to the town hall. If you enlarge the opening, change the façade appearance, or convert a window into a door, it becomes a bigger permission, and in a listed or centro histórico area there may be additional restrictions on materials and colours.

How long does replacement take?

Manufacture is 3–5 weeks from measurement. Fitting is one to two days for a whole house. Each opening is out for a few hours only, so the property stays liveable throughout — this is one of the few renovation jobs that does not turn your life upside down.

Should I replace all the windows at once?

Financially it is cheaper per unit — one measurement visit, one production run, one installation. If the budget only allows part of the house, start with the rooms that face south and west, and with the largest openings. That is where the heat comes in.

What about security?

Multi-point locking on sliding doors is worth specifying, particularly on a property that stands empty. Modern sliding doors can be lifted out of the track by hand if they lack an anti-lift block — ask whether it is included. Roller shutters remain the most effective and least discussed security feature on a Spanish house.

Getting a quote

Window quotes need measurements — every opening in an older Spanish property is slightly different, and standard sizes rarely apply. We measure on site, at no cost, and quote per opening so you can decide to do the whole house or the hot rooms first.

See the windows and doors page for the full service, or send a photo of the façade — that alone tells us most of what we need to give you a range.