Non-resident tax: Costa Cálida (Murcia)

British buyers are the largest foreign group in Murcia province by a wide margin, ahead of Moroccan, Dutch, Belgian, Polish and German purchasers, and most of them own around the Mar Menor, the shallow lagoon shared by San Javier, San Pedro del Pinatar, Los Alcázares and Cartagena. Property is cheaper than on the neighbouring Costa Blanca: apartments in Santiago de la Ribera and Lo Pagán, townhouses on golf resorts such as Roda and La Serena, and the long strip of La Manga, whose northern section belongs to San Javier and the rest to Cartagena. A far smaller share of purchases goes to foreigners here than in Alicante, but that share is concentrated in a handful of coastal towns.

Further south the coast opens up. Mazarrón has the large inland urbanisation of Camposol, almost a British village in itself, next to the harbour at Puerto de Mazarrón and the beaches of Bolnuevo and Isla Plana; Águilas, towards Andalusia, remains mostly Spanish with a foreign enclave at Calabardina. Murcia city, inland, is a university and services capital where non-residents tend to own flats for letting rather than holidays.

Murcia is the one region on this site where the 1.1 % coefficient is closer to the norm than the exception. Águilas revised its cadastral values in 2012, San Pedro del Pinatar in 2014, Murcia city in 2019 and Los Alcázares as recently as 2022, so four of the 7 towns qualify for the reduced coefficient under the rule that governs the 2023–2026 tax years. Cartagena, whose values go back to 1997, San Javier (2006) and Mazarrón (2008) remain at 2 %.

Two apartments facing each other across the lagoon, one in Los Alcázares and one in Santiago de la Ribera, can therefore carry quite different bills for similar values. A fresh revision also tends to lift the values themselves, so compare the valor catastral on your receipt rather than the coefficient alone. For the many UK owners here the rate on the imputed income has been 24 % since Brexit, with nothing deductible; Irish and other EU residents pay 19 %. The return is per owner and per property, due whether or not anyone used the home.

San Pedro del Pinatar, Los Alcázares, Mazarrón and Águilas delegate the IBI to the Agencia Tributaria de la Región de Murcia (ATRM), whose voluntary periods are long but differ by town: Los Alcázares and San Pedro open in April, Mazarrón in June, and Águilas runs until the start of December in 2026. The three larger councils keep their own machinery: the Agencia Municipal Tributaria in Murcia, the Organismo Autónomo de Gestión Recaudatoria (OAGRC) in Cartagena, which also covers La Manga and Cabo de Palos, and San Javier's municipal collection office with its Oficina Virtual del Contribuyente. Direct debit is offered by all four collectors and is the surest way to avoid a surcharge while you are abroad.

The Región de Murcia regulates holiday homes through Decreto 256/2019: a prior declaration and registration in the regional tourism registry, minimum equipment standards and display of the registration number in every advert. Unlike the Balearics or Barcelona, the Mar Menor councils apply these regional rules without large local bans at the time of writing. Nationally, the Registro Único number has been compulsory on platforms since 1 July 2025. Rental income goes on its own Modelo 210, grouped by year, and the imputed income shrinks to the days the property was not let. Check the current regulation before advertising; it changes often.

• The Región de Murcia International Airport at Corvera serves the whole coast, and Alicante-Elche is close enough for the Mar Menor; an autumn trip conveniently coincides with most IBI periods.
• Golf-resort homes often sit in a different municipality from the one the resort's name suggests: the IBI receipt and its referencia catastral settle which town and coefficient apply.
• Fiscasa prepares one Modelo 210 per owner from the cadastral reference, and UK owners can pay by transfer without a Spanish bank account.
• Years never declared can be regularised back to four years; before any AEAT letter the surcharge is 1 % plus 1 % per month, after twelve months 15 % plus interest.