When we returned from Fort Lauderdale to our native Europe, we started exploring the southern continent to find a place. Just in case we didn’t end up in Miami. Just in case the Americans decided to vote for Trump – again. 

We began our search in the places that southern European sailing life had already introduced us to: Spain, Italy, Sardinia, Sicily, and eventually Montenegro. Montenegro, our winter base in 2023, quickly taught us one thing: we have to dig deeper and that takes time. 

Well, we had a wishlist. What must our dream location offer? And what absolutely not? (Think: landfills, highways, loud neighbors.) Still, we didn’t find a single house that was both beautiful and fitting to our needs. The biggest disappointment: Montenegro. The locals could not only use a friendliness seminar or two – brushing up on basic politeness and the art of smiling might be a good idea. However most of the good real estate had already been snapped up by wealthy Russians and Serbs. Prices were absurd, and if you’ve seen the construction quality, you’ll be hoping for a life without seismic activity. After just three days, we canceled all our appointments with local agents.

So, in the winter of 2023, we headed to Spain and followed the coastline from Valencia to Malaga. In Valencia – as we had experienced years ago – the market didn’t offer anything that fit our needs. Beautiful city and city apartments, yes. But nothing to check our boxes.

Denia, our second stop, was a completely different story. We found several houses that came very close to what we were looking for. Not quite perfect, but close. What really caught our attention were the building plots and two offers from general contractors. Thomas Bollmann showed us two plots in Orba (about 20 km from Denia), while Danny and Joselyn from z.Sanchez introduced us to a stunning plot on Monte Solana.

We were pretty sure: this could be it.

Still, we had more appointments lined up, so we continued our tour to Calpe, Murcia, and Malaga. The further south we went, the more crowded and concrete-heavy the coast became – and the greener it was not. Costa del Sol, currently a real estate hotspot, didn’t appeal to us at all. Trend or not – in our opinion, it doesn’t hold a candle to the Costa Blanca.

After ten days, we made our decision: Denia.