The Costa del Sol has a rhythm most expats only notice after a few full years of living there. The year starts twice: January in the calendar, Semana Santa — Holy Week — in real life.

February is when the Costa is still. The restaurants have space. The roads move. Landlords are negotiating rather than waiting for offers. Property sellers, fewer of them than last year, are less certain that the next buyer is right around the corner. The temporada baja — low season — still has a week or two left.

Semana Santa starts March 29. Within five weeks, the Costa shifts gear. Domestic tourists arrive from Madrid, hotel occupancy climbs toward peak, short-term rental demand picks up, and the professional and property decisions that felt unhurried in February start competing with a busier, noisier market.

That shift makes March useful. A handful of financial decisions are easier to make before the noise starts than after.

If you have foreign assets, the Modelo 720 deadline is March 31.

The Modelo 720 — annual foreign asset declaration — requires anyone who is tax resident in Spain and holds foreign assets above €50,000 in any single category to file with Agencia Tributaria — Spain's tax authority — by March 31. Bank accounts, investment portfolios, and property abroad each count separately. Cryptocurrency held abroad has its own parallel form, the Modelo 721 — the foreign cryptocurrency declaration — with the same deadline.

The reason March catches people is simple: the deadline falls before the main Renta — income tax — campaign opens on April 8. Most people think of tax season as starting in April. The asset declaration is already late by then. If you use a gestor — a tax advisor — confirm they have a complete picture of all three asset categories, not just the obvious bank account.

Full details on Modelo 720 (penalties, thresholds, and what the EU Court ruling changed) are in our Tax Residency guide. (Confirmed February 2026)

If you are thinking about buying property: this is a queue window, not a bargain window.

Transaction volume in Málaga province is running 9.78% below last year and has been falling monthly since autumn 2025 (Colegio de Registradores, February 2026). Prices have not followed it down. That combination tells you something specific about the market: sellers are pricing in confidence, not desperation. There are no distressed deals waiting to be found.

What the lower volume does change is the queue. Foreign buyers account for 32.3% of purchases in Málaga province, and demand picks up sharply with the season. A property decision made in February or early March faces fewer competing buyers than the same decision made in April or May. Not because prices are softer, but because fewer people are looking. (Confirmed February 2026)

If you rent out a property: Easter is already priced in. The useful move is what comes after.

Semana Santa is the first major short-term rental peak of the year. With 74,961 active viviendas de uso turístico — short-term tourist rental licences — on the Costa del Sol as of February 2026, Easter week occupancy is already largely determined by listings that went live weeks ago. Adjusting rates now makes little difference for April.

What the next two weeks affect is the post-Easter period. The weeks immediately after Semana Santa (mid-April through May) are when well-positioned properties pull away from the pack. If your pricing and availability for that window have not been reviewed against current Airbnb and Booking.com listings, that review is the practical task for this week.

For long-term renters: spring is when landlords holding properties on long-term leases are most likely to test whether switching to short-term rental is viable. If your contract is up for renewal in the next three months, the conversation about terms is worth having before April. (Confirmed February 2026)

If you want every 2026 deadline in one place (Modelo 720, Renta, IVA quarterlies, autónomo contributions), our Spain Expat Tax Deadlines guide has the full calendar.

Two terms that come up in financial and property conversations this time of year:

Temporada alta — high season (the opposite of temporada baja; relevant when discussing rental pricing and service availability)

Plazo de presentación — filing deadline (literally "submission period": the phrase tax advisors and gestors use when discussing form deadlines)

The Costa year starts twice: January in your calendar, Semana Santa in real life. March is the gap between them. The Modelo 720 deadline on March 31 does not move, and most gestors get busy in the final two weeks. The property and rental decisions are softer, but the logic is the same: a quieter market is a more manageable one, and it will not stay quiet for long.

Onwards — A. and the filing, budgeting, and prepping the terrace for spring, WaypointSur team