What is the best orientation for a house? Here is what to look at before you buy, build or refurbish on the Costa del Sol.
Whether you are buying, selling, building or refurbishing, which way a property faces is one of the few things you cannot change later. Windows can be replaced. Insulation can be added. The path of the sun stays where it is.
It is also the point most buyers skip. Aspect decides how much daylight and heat a house takes in. That drives what you spend on heating and cooling, and it feeds straight into what the property is worth.
At Klic Arquitectos, an architecture practice in Málaga, we go through this on every commission: a purchase, a new build or a high-end refurbishment. This is the short version, so you can work out the best orientation for a house before you commit to one.
Why the aspect of a property matters
A façade facing north, south, east or west receives a very different amount of light and heat. Add the local climate, the position of the plot and the size of the house, and you have most of what determines its energy performance.
The cost shows up on the bill. Fewer hours of daylight and the lights go on earlier. Full sun at two in the afternoon in August and the air conditioning runs. No winter sun into the living room and the heating runs instead. None of this is dramatic on its own. Over a year it adds up. Juan Goñi, architect in Málaga, looks at orientation on every project, for thermal comfort as much as for daylight.
It also shows up in the paperwork. Every home sold or let in Spain needs an energy performance certificate (certificado de eficiencia energética), graded A to G much like the EPC you know from the UK. That grade is one of the things a valuer (tasador) weighs when the property is valued. A favourable aspect works for you twice over: lower running costs, and a better grade on paper.
The best orientation for a house in the northern hemisphere
There is no single right answer, and anyone who gives you one is selling something. It depends on the hemisphere, on the climate and on what the room is used for. Spain runs from Cantabria down to Málaga, and the sensible aspect in Bilbao is not the sensible aspect in Torremolinos. Here is how each one behaves north of the equator.
North-facing
North receives the most even and most constant natural light of the four aspects, with almost no direct sun. That makes it well suited to offices and studies, and it works for a living room, kitchen or dining room where you want light without glare.
In Spain it tends to be the sound choice in the south, Andalucía included, where the problem is heat, not cold.
South-facing
A south-facing aspect receives direct sun all year round. It is the traditional choice for the rooms you spend most time in, typically the living room and the bedrooms.
Its main advantage is the winter heating bill. In the north of Spain, in Cantabria, Asturias or the Basque Country, south is usually the best orientation for a house.
East-facing
East takes the sun through the morning and is in shade by the hottest hours of the day. That makes it the aspect to look for in genuinely hot climates, where the aim is to keep the afternoon out rather than let it in.
West-facing
West is exposed to the sun in the last hours of the day, when the air has already warmed up. It suits cold climates, where that late heat carries the house into the evening and takes some load off the heating.
So there is no fixed rule for the best orientation for a house. It depends on what each room is for and on where the property sits. Worth knowing here, though: on the Costa del Sol the job is usually keeping the summer sun out, not letting more of it in, which is why a west-facing terrace that photographs beautifully in the brochure can be unusable in August.
Two practical points. If you are buying, visit at the hour of day you will actually use the room, and take a compass with you. If you are building or refurbishing, orientation is settled on the first sketch, not at the end. At Klic Arquitectos we handle commissions from that first drawing through to handover, and we are based in Torremolinos if it is easier to talk it through in person.
