Selling a villa in Orihuela Costa.

Order a fresh nota simple from the Land Registry and a Certificado Catastral from the Catastro. Compare three numbers: the plot area, the total built area, and any recorded extensions or pool. Reconcile them against the escritura and the physical property. Discrepancies fall into three categories:

• Purely administrative. Land Registry and Catastro figures disagree, but both are consistent with the escritura. Fixed cheaply by a certificate of coordination.
• Undeclared minor works. A porch, storage room, or partial pool enclosure not on the deed. Often regularisable via declaración de obra nueva or prescription certificate. Cost: a few hundred to a few thousand euros.
• Substantive undeclared building. A whole extension, converted garage, or unlicensed pool. Requires architect input; may take months. Decide with your lawyer whether to legalise before listing or disclose in the listing pack.

Any of these can be sold around. None of them can be hidden — the buyer's lawyer will find them.

For a detached villa in Orihuela Costa, the pool and outdoor spaces are half the marketing. Two practical rules:

• Legality first, aesthetics second. A beautiful pool not on the deed is a liability. Regularise or disclose. Buyers' lawyers open the Catastro before the second viewing.
• The photograph is the offer. Golden-hour exterior stills, drone stills at 30–60m altitude showing the plot and surrounding urbanisation, blue-hour terrace shots with pool lit. This is the difference between eight international enquiries a week and one.

Plot size matters more to Northern European buyers than to Spanish ones. If your plot is above 400 m², state the exact figure in every headline.

A valid energy performance certificate (CEE) is a legal listing requirement. Get one issued before photography — it takes a week and costs €150–€350 for a villa. Two things matter more than the letter grade:

• Running-cost transparency. Recent annual electricity, water, community and IBI receipts should be available on request. Northern European buyers ask; withholding them is a signal.
• Reversible upgrades. Solar hot water, LED lighting throughout, and functional air-conditioning are cheap upgrades with disproportionate impact on Northern European buyer confidence. Full solar-PV installations rarely return their cost.

Villas do not sell from templated listings. The differentiators that consistently move enquiries and viewings up:

• Professional photography plus drone. Non-optional. Phone shots and generic ground-level stills undervalue villas by 5–8%.
• A two-minute listing film. The narrative moves buyers from portal-scan to booked-flight faster than static stills alone.
• Correct floorplan with orientation and outdoor zones. Terrace, pool, garden, parking and utility zones marked.
• International portal distribution. Idealista, Fotocasa, Kyero, A Place in the Sun, plus language-specific boards for UK, Dutch, Belgian, Scandinavian and German markets. Machine-translation is not translation.
• Buyer-side agent outreach. Direct notification to a curated list of buyer-side agents in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Ireland when a villa in their price band lists.

• Original escritura and nota simple (current).
• Certificado Catastral showing plot and built area.
• Declaraciones de obra nueva for any extension, pool, or outbuilding.
• Latest IBI receipt and confirmation of paid status.
• Community fee certificate — if in a community — showing no debts.
• Valid energy performance certificate (CEE).
• Cédula de habitabilidad or licence of first occupation.
• ITE / IEE certificate where the municipality requires it.
• Recent utility bills (agua, luz, gas where applicable).
• NIE for every legal owner (current).