If you have just bought on the Costa del Sol, or you are about to, you will already know that refurbishing lifts both the value of a property and the way it works day to day. The harder question is which work is worth doing. These are the types of refurbishment our clients asked for most in 2023, and the ones still setting the tone in 2024.
We are Klic Arquitectos, architects in Marbella, and we specialise in luxury refurbishments. Have a look at the projects we have built.
A good many of our clients want a more personal, more carefully judged approach. That is why they come to us as luxury architects in Marbella: the work has to hold up on three counts at once — the design, the way the house actually works, and the standard of the finishes.
Types of refurbishment
Refurbishing is rarely straightforward, and in Spain there is a layer of paperwork that catches out most buyers arriving from the UK or northern Europe. Cosmetic work normally goes through a declaración responsable, a self-certified notice to the town hall. Anything touching structure, layout or the façade needs a full works licence (licencia de obra mayor) — planning permission, in British terms. Worth knowing before you price anything up. That aside, here is where the trends are.
Smart homes
Comfort is what people ask for first, and increasingly that means turning the house into a smart home.
A smart home builds technology into the house so that jobs you used to do by hand run on their own: lighting, blinds, climate, irrigation, access. The point of it is a house that is easier to live in.
A home running on an automation system — domótica is the word you will see on Spanish quotations — has real advantages: every device controlled from one place, better security, and a house that still works for someone with limited mobility. The catch is the wiring. Decide it early. Retrofitting once the walls are closed costs considerably more than planning it in.
Walk-in wardrobes
Contrary to what most people assume, you do not need a large room for a walk-in wardrobe. It is a question of using every centimetre you have — rails, shelving, drawers, pull-outs — not of how many square metres you start with.
Where there is a spare bedroom next to the main one, the current trend is to join the two. In many cases this is not a major building job: opening a doorway between the rooms and hanging a door is often enough. One caveat if you are buying a flat. Where that wall is structural, both the comunidad de propietarios (the owners’ association, roughly a residents’ management company) and the town hall have a say.
The home office
Of all the types of refurbishment on this list, this is the one we are asked for most. Remote working changed how people live as much as how they work. A house on the coast now has to absorb a working day: somewhere to deal with paperwork, take calls or study without interruption.
It has worked its way into interior design and into what people expect from a home. For anyone splitting the year between the UK and Spain, a proper study is no longer a pleasant extra. It decides whether the house works for six months a year or for a fortnight.
Sustainable homes
More and more people want a home that costs less to run, and on a refurbishment it is now one of the first things on the brief. There is a wide choice of energy-efficient appliances, taps and fittings that cut water use, and glazing and external envelopes that hold the temperature steady. That last one matters more here than most buyers expect: on this coast the job is keeping the heat out in August, not keeping it in. Done properly, the work helps the environment and lowers the bills at the same time.
On premium properties it takes luxury architects in Marbella to fold technology and energy performance into a house without the result looking or feeling like a plant room. Spain’s building regulations, the Código Técnico de la Edificación, set the minimum on insulation and ventilation. The interesting decisions sit above that line.
Multifunctional bathrooms
The bathroom is one of the most-used rooms in any house, and one of the few that has to offer privacy and a bit of calm. Which is why it is worth making it genuinely usable rather than merely good-looking. Swapping the bath for a shower is the traditional way to free up space and make the room work harder. What has changed is the arrival of the multifunctional bathroom: walk-in showers, steam showers, integrated storage, better light and ventilation. It is now one of the most popular items on any brief. One warning. Bathrooms are where the plumbing and the drainage runs decide what is possible, and in older blocks in Torremolinos or Málaga those runs are often shared with the neighbours. Check them before you commit to a new layout.
Those are the types of refurbishment in demand right now. If you are weighing up work on a property here, the sensible first step is finding out what the town hall will allow, before you fall for a particular layout. We are architects in Marbella and we specialise in luxury refurbishments. Send us the details and we will tell you where your project stands.
