The Date You Signed Now Moves Your Costa del Sol Bill More Than Your Town Does

In June we told you which town moves your bill. Ten weeks on, the towns have barely moved, as far as we can show. The contracts have, and they are priced by the date you signed, not where you live.

Our 24 June cost floor put Rincón de la Victoria and Manilva near €1,360 a month, Málaga city, Benalmádena and Fuengirola near €1,600, Estepona at €1,844 and Marbella at €2,009. A €650 spread, most of it rent.

That part still holds. What we got wrong is the column we left out, and the ruler we realized gave you a better understanding of the market.

First, June listed five lines in that floor: a one-bed in the centre, the weekly shop, a meal out for two, a gym, water. The model also carries 300 kWh of electricity at the energy price and a small taxi allowance. We should have listed both, but we have only recently been able to reliably source pricing data for them.

Second, on 26 June we swapped the rent input from Idealista's published report to live asking medians from our own monitor. Our own monitor, while still using Idealista, uses a larger group of real estate price providers to hopefully give you a better understanding of the true nature of real estate on the Costa. The spread between towns now reads €875 instead of €650, and almost all of that is the swap. The other lines were carried forward rather than collected again, so this run cannot say how much the towns themselves moved. Next week's can.

Third, an asking median is the advertised price of what is on the market this month. It is not a completed rent, and it is not what a settled tenant pays; an existing lease moves on its own annual update terms, if any. Our floor is the price of moving in. It was never the price of staying.

One line moved for real. The regulated energy price we track went from €0.125 to €0.170 per kWh over the summer, about €13.50 a month at 300 kWh, in every town. Confirmed September 2026.

June's excluded lines, the mortgage, the insurance, the tax office, are where 2026 happened, and none of them cares which town you are in.

If your variable mortgage resets on August's 12-month Euribor, the Banco de España average was 2.954%, against 2.114% a year earlier. On a €150,000 balance with 30 years to run and the lender's margin unchanged, that is about €70 a month more; less if you are further in. The levers are a novación — renegotiation with your existing bank or a subrogación — transfer of the mortgage to another bank.

Health insurance runs on a different clock. An insurer changing your terms owes you two months' notice before renewal, and your written no has to reach them at least a month before the renewal date, as we set out in July. Thursday's issue is about exactly that.

For the self-employed, a change to the base of your cuota — monthly Social Security contribution requested by 31 October takes effect on 1 November, and third-quarter filings run 1 to 20 October.

Before the move, you compared towns. Now, every September, you compare dates.

FACUA puts the final August bill for its standard household (4.4 kW contracted, 366 kWh) at €96.65, the dearest August in four years and up 19.8% on last August's €80.71, with IVA — VAT back at 21% and the electricity tax at 5.1% since 1 June. Confirmed September 2026.

The town line has no lever. The contract lines often do, and electricity is the easiest one to pull. As we set out on 6 July, you never choose the grid company; if your bill names e-distribución, in the Endesa group, it stays whoever bills you. You only ever choose the contract.

At our 1 September check, a good amount of flat-rate offers and a few time-of-use offers from four suppliers cleared our gate, with no early-exit penalty we could see, at flat rates from €0.0999 to €0.153 per kWh before standing charges and taxes, against a regulated €0.170. Lucera's adds a €4.90 monthly fee.

Which of the five providers beats your contract depends on your usage, so run your last bill through the contract check. The contract check uses the browser to read the PDF, not save it; only the figures you confirm are sent, and it earns us nothing either way.

One correction to July while we are here. We said a switch takes 15 to 21 days. Since February, the law caps it at 10 working days from signing, five more only if the grid company has to send someone out. A standard household tariff carries no switching fee, though an early-exit penalty you signed up to still stands. The meter stays. Confirmed September 2026.

Our read is that the Costa is still stratifying; the line has shifted from the postcode to the contract date.

On 31 August we re-checked all nine cost-of-living guides and the hub. Rent moved most, one town we had down as cheaper than its neighbour turned out not to be on our new numbers, and two dining gaps narrowed. The town-by-town breakout is next week's issue.

One warning to carry into it. A reader sent us a chart this week, setting Idealista's national asking price against what the notaries record at signing: €2,933 per square meter asked in July, €2,114 per square meter completed in June, 27.9% below.

Sadly, that is not a discount waiting for you. Different months, different homes, different methods, and Tecnocasa measured actual negotiation at about 6% at the end of last year. A listing index prices what is being asked. A deed index prices what closed. Read every asking number, ours included, with that in mind.

¿Tiene permanencia? — Is there a lock-in or early-exit penalty?

¿Cuál es el precio sin descuento? — What is the price without the discount?

June's floor was right about the map and loose about what it measured. The year's money moved in the contracts, and those are priced by the date you signed. The town cannot be renegotiated. The contracts can, and a standard electricity switch now has a ten-working-day legal maximum.

Onwards — A. and the WaypointSur team, checking the date before the postcode.