All about
CALPE & ALTEA
Designed by Rachel Gore
A 12 - page Olive Press Special www.theolivepress.es
November 2025
Cosmopolitan rock Spain’s expat capital, reaches a global milestone, explains Dilip Kuner
FOREIGN DOMINATION: The Peñon de Ifach marks a town of nearly 10,500 foreigners
T
HE first time I visited Calpe, I was convinced I’d walked into the wrong country. It wasn’t the sun that threw me off, or even the Peñon de Ifach looming over the bay like some monumental guardian – it was the voices. English drifted from a bakery queue, Dutch from a nearby café, and German from a couple
arguing amiably over sunscreen. Then someone greeted me in Valencian, and I realised this wasn’t confusion – it was Calpe. And it turns out my ears weren’t exaggerating. The town recently crossed a quietly astonishing milestone: foreign nationals now make up over half of its population. More than 53%, to be exact – meaning Spanish residents are
technically the minority in this stretch of the Costa Blanca. It’s the only town in Spain with more than 20,000 people to reach that level of international mix. But statistics don’t quite capture it. You feel it on the street. The conversations switch languages mid-sentence, and the menus carry three translations as naturally as a tri-
lingual child. Calpe, once a sleepy fishing town, now beats to a global rhythm. And this shift has changed everything – not just the faces in its markets, but the entire logic of how it lives and breathes. Continues on next page
AN INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED FRANCHISEE OF THE AGENCY REAL ESTATE FRANCHISING, LLC.
AN INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED FRANCHISEE OF THE AGENCY REAL ESTATE FRANCHISING, LLC.
AN INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED FRANCHISEE OF THE AGENCY REAL ESTATE FRANCHISING, LLC.