Useful Tools

What these tools answer

Seven questions people ask every week on the coast, each with its own tool. All of them free, all of them the same ones the Forum Costa app uses.

Mortgage Calculator

Spanish mortgages work differently from the ones at home, and the extra costs are the part that surprises people. This calculator takes the price of the home, your deposit, the interest rate and the term, and shows what you pay each month and what you need on the day you sign: transfer tax on a resale, IVA and stamp duty on a new build, legal fees, notary and registry. It knows that non-residents borrow up to about 70 percent and residents a little more, and that Spanish banks lend until age 75, so your age sets the longest term. It is a guide, not a bank offer. Open the tool →

Currency Converter

Euros, pounds, US dollars and Swedish kronor, converted both ways at the European Central Bank's mid-market rate, refreshed every banking day. It also explains the number nobody prints: the gap between that rate and what your bank or exchange office gives you, which is where the real cost of moving money sits. Any website can take the converter for free: copy the code, paste it in, and it shows live rates with a small Forum Costa line. Open the tool →

Weather

Live conditions, the sea temperature and the seven-day forecast for nine towns from Sotogrande to Nerja, because the coast does not have one weather: some valleys trap heat while a breeze cleans the next one. Under the forecast sits the coast's weather through the year, month by month, when you can swim, how hot summer really gets, when it rains, and the full guide to the climate and microclimates from Alcaidesa to Nerja. Open the tool →

Find Your Town

A one-minute picture quiz. You choose what your life here should look like, lively or quiet, beach or hills, Spanish or international, school run or golf run, and the coast answers with the three towns that fit, each with its own guide. It is built on a profile of every town, not on opinions, and you can send your result to Filip for a person's view on it. Open the tool →

Street Markets

Every weekly mercadillo on the coast, 38 of them, checked with the town halls: which market is on today, the whole week west to east, the town, the hours, what the stalls sell and where to park. The big Saturday markets, the second-hand rastros and the organic and artisan ones each carry their own tag. Open the tool →

Supermarkets

Every supermarket on the Costa del Sol on one map, 240 stores from Torremolinos to Sotogrande, checked against the chains' own store finders: Mercadona, Lidl, Aldi, Carrefour, Alcampo, Día, El Corte Inglés, Supercor, Maskom and Coviran. With them, 66 shops from home: Scandinavian, British, Dutch, German, Eastern European and Asian food, organic stores and butchers. Every pin has opening hours, Sunday opening and directions, and the map finds the five closest to you. Open the tool →

Golf

All 65 courses from Sotogrande to the far side of Málaga, with the green fee and the day it was checked, membership prices explained, and reviews from people who play here. Almost every course lets you pay and play, the few private ones are marked, and each course has its own page with prices, the course from the sky and the notes people leave. Open the tool →

Metres to Feet

Property here is measured in square metres, and buyers from the UK and Ireland think in square feet. Type the square metres from a Spanish listing and read the square feet, or turn it round: 100 m² is 1,076 sq ft, 200 m² is 2,153. The common home sizes sit side by side, and the page says what built metres and usable metres mean, the two sizes every listing quotes. Open the tool →