Short version. We design and supervise one-off detached houses on the Spanish coast and the islands, from the first sketch on the plot to the signed completion certificate. The complete professional team starts at 26,000 € plus VAT, billed per square metre of house and never as a percentage of what the works end up costing.
We take on few commissions a year and keep no catalogue: every house is designed for its own plot, orientation and set of municipal by-laws.
There are a hundred pages claiming to be architects in Marbella. The only thing worth checking is what has been built. Ours stands in three places: the Costa del Sol, the Alicante coast and Ibiza.
Where we have built on the coast and the islands
Where a house is linked with a floor area, that is the built area published on its own page. Where it is linked without one, we have not published the area and will not invent it.
| Coast | Municipality | Completed house |
|---|---|---|
| Costa del Sol | Marbella | Villa RS61 · 209.90 m² |
| Málaga | Casa FP9 · 136 m² | |
| Fuengirola | Villa RA4 | |
| Estepona | We work here | |
| Mijas | We work here | |
| Benalmádena | We work here | |
| Torremolinos | We work here | |
| Alicante | Altea | Villa R25 · 1,138.17 m² |
| Calpe | Casa R37 | |
| Jávea | We work here | |
| Balearics | Ibiza | Villa C58 · 539.62 m² |
| Palma de Mallorca | We work here |
The range is the point. Casa FP9 is 136 m² and Villa R25 is 1,138.17 m², and both were designed the same way, for the plot they stand on. The floor plans are published in full on the house plans page; we would rather you judged us on those than on a photograph.
The towns with no house next to them. Estepona, Mijas, Benalmádena, Torremolinos, Jávea and Palma de Mallorca are places we work in and travel to. We have no completed house in them, and a page that implied otherwise would be opening with a lie.
Three roles the law requires on one house
This surprises almost every foreign client, and it is worth knowing before you compare quotes. Spanish law does not let one professional cover a dwelling alone: Law 38/1999 on Building Regulation (Ley de Ordenación de la Edificación, the LOE) names three roles and reserves each to a qualification.
The designer
The proyectista signs the design: the outline the permit is granted on, and the detailed design the house is built from.
On a dwelling, reserved to an arquitecto.
The site supervisor
The dirección de obra answers for the works matching the design, and for the decisions taken when site and drawings disagree.
Also reserved to an arquitecto.
The execution supervisor
The dirección de ejecución checks materials, workmanship and quantities, and signs off what the builder is owed each month.
Reserved to an arquitecto técnico, usually called a quantity surveyor.
So a house needs both qualifications, and both sign the certificado final de obra (the completion certificate). Usually that means two firms, two contracts and a gap between them where responsibility hides — harder to manage from another country, not easier.
Here it does not arise. Fran Cortés holds both qualifications — arquitecto, COAM member no. 21503, and arquitecto técnico, COAATM member no. 105287 — so all three roles sit under one contract: what the second one does with your money.
A colegio and a visado. A colegio profesional is the statutory body an architect must belong to; the visado colegial is the stamp it puts on a set of drawings, certifying that whoever signed them is registered, insured and entitled to sign. Town halls ask for it, and so do banks on a self-build mortgage. Its cost is included in our fee, which is not the norm.
The tax on the works is set by the town hall
Most of what governs a house in Spain is national, including the Spanish Building Code (Código Técnico de la Edificación, the CTE). What the council takes off you before a lorry arrives is not, which catches people out when they compare two plots ten minutes apart.
The ICIO (the municipal tax on building work) is charged on the presupuesto de ejecución material — the construction budget of materials and labour, before the builder’s overheads and profit and before VAT. Each council sets its own rate within a legal band, and each charges a permit fee on top, a separate line.
We are not going to print a rate for Marbella, Calpe or Ibiza here. The table of rates we publish covers Madrid municipalities, read by-law by by-law; on the coast the figure has to come off the by-law of the council your plot actually falls under, which is one of the first things we check. What the ICIO and building permit guide gives you anywhere in Spain is the mechanism: what the tax is charged on, what the fee is, and when each is paid.
How big is the difference, really? In the Madrid table it is 9,750 € between the cheapest and the dearest council on a house with a 300,000 € presupuesto de ejecución material. That figure is Madrid’s and does not transfer to the coast, but the order of magnitude is why we read by-laws instead of assuming. The cost calculator does the same arithmetic end to end — construction, tax, fee, professional fees — but its rates are loaded for thirty Madrid municipalities: on a coastal plot, use it for the shape of the total, not to price your council.
Buying a plot before you know what fits on it
A coastal plot is easy to buy as an opportunity rather than as a building site, and the two are not the same thing. The plot is the design brief. Setback, buildable floor area, the share you may cover and height are all in the municipal by-laws, and two plots that look identical can take very different houses. Send us the plot before you commit, or at least read what you can build on your plot first. You will also need a NIE, the identification number Spain issues to foreigners; that is your lawyer’s job rather than ours, but start it early.
How a commission runs from abroad
The plot, before anything else
We look at what the by-laws let you build there, and at what the plot itself wants: orientation, slope, views, where the sun lands in August. This is the cheapest moment to discover a problem.
Concept design, then the outline design for the permit
The concept settles the house. The outline design is what the council grants the permit on, and it goes in with the professional body’s stamp. We prepare the file so that no delay is our doing, and promise no date we do not control.
The detailed technical design
The document the house is actually built from, and the one that decides how many arguments there are on site. Cutting back here is expensive later, doubly so if you are not in the country to settle them.
Construction, with both supervision roles in one office
The works are checked against the design, and every monthly progress certificate against what has actually been built and the contracted prices.
At the end both signatures go on the certificado final de obra, and from there to the first occupancy licence and the declaración de obra nueva, the notarial deed that makes the house exist on paper.
Commission to keys usually runs to about two years: roughly six to nine months of design and permit, twelve to sixteen of construction. Those are not dates we offer. The permit timescale is the town hall’s, not ours, and it is not guaranteed.
Living abroad while it happens is normal for us: the design stage works over video calls and shared drawings, and you come over when there is something worth standing in front of. Supervision on site is the part that is physically ours, until the last signature.
Check us before you write
- House plans — completed houses with their plans and areas, including the coastal and island ones above.
- Fees — the 26,000 € figure and what it covers.
- The guides — eleven of them, on the paperwork nobody explains: the ICIO, the first occupancy licence, the self-build mortgage and the rest.
- Architect in Madrid — the studio’s home ground, with the municipal tax table in full.
Frequently asked questions
Have you actually built on the coast, or is this a landing page?
We have: Villa RS61 in Marbella (209.90 m²), Casa FP9 in Málaga (136 m²), Villa RA4 in Fuengirola, Villa R25 in Altea (1,138.17 m²), Casa R37 in Calpe and Villa C58 in Ibiza (539.62 m²). A missing area means we have not published it.
Why does one house need two different professionals?
Because Law 38/1999 on Building Regulation (Ley de Ordenación de la Edificación, the LOE) splits the job. Design and site supervision are reserved to an arquitecto (articles 10 and 12); supervision of the execution belongs to an arquitecto técnico, closer to a quantity surveyor (article 13). Both sign the completion certificate. It is not an upsell, it is the law. Fran Cortés holds both qualifications, so both roles sit under one contract: how they divide up.
What do you charge?
From 26,000 € plus VAT for the complete professional team on a detached house, billed per square metre built and never as a percentage of the construction budget. The professional body’s stamp is included; interior design is a separate commission, from 40 €/m². The breakdown is on the fees page. There has been no official fee scale in Spain since 1997 (Law 7/1997), so any percentage offered as “the standard” is a habit of the trade, not a rule.
What is the building tax in Marbella, or in Ibiza?
We will not put a number on this page that we have not checked. The ICIO runs from 3 % to 4 % of the presupuesto de ejecución material, and each council sets its own rate and its own separate permit fee in its own by-law. The rate for your plot comes off that council’s by-law, and it is one of the first things we check. Our published table of rates covers Madrid municipalities only: how the tax is built up.
Can we do this while I am living in another country?
Yes. The studio works from Madrid, and the houses on this page were designed from there and built in Marbella, Málaga, Altea, Calpe, Fuengirola and Ibiza. What does not happen remotely is site supervision — that means being on the plot, and it is the part you are paying two qualifications for.
Do I need a NIE?
Yes, a foreign buyer needs a NIE, the identification number Spain issues to foreigners. We do not process it and this page does not explain how it is obtained; your lawyer will. Start it early — it tends to be needed before you expect it.
I am about to buy a plot. Will the house I have in mind fit on it?
That is decided by the municipal by-laws, not by national law: setback, buildable floor area, how much of the plot you may cover and height change from one council to the next. Read what you can build on your plot before you sign, and send us the plot if you want it checked first.
Tell us where the plot is
Send the address or the Catastro reference — the land registry for tax purposes, a different body from the Registro de la Propiedad — and the house you have in mind, and we will come back with the scope and a fee in writing.
If the numbers here do not fit your budget, better you know now.