We renovate townhouses and semi-detached houses on Costa del Sol urbanisations: kitchens, bathrooms, staircases, services and finishes, plus façade, roof and window work where the community allows it. We point out early which parts of the job touch shared elements or the outside appearance, so you can clear them with the community administrator first. One contractor coordinates every trade and the quote is itemised.
What makes a townhouse different from a villa?
A townhouse shares walls with its neighbours and is usually part of a comunidad de propietarios, the legal community of owners that runs shared gardens, pools, paths and sometimes the façades and roofs. The community has statutes and, often, internal rules on what owners may change outside, at what hours work may take place and how deliveries reach the site.
Spain’s Horizontal Property Law (Ley 49/1960) allows each owner to alter their own unit as long as the work does not affect the building’s safety, structure, or its configuration and external appearance, among other limits; changes to the outside generally need the community’s consent. In practice, that means window colours, render finishes, awnings and roof changes need checking before anyone orders materials.
What can be done inside a townhouse?
Most townhouses on the coast follow a vertical layout: living and kitchen on the ground floor, bedrooms above, sometimes a basement or roof terrace. That shapes the work:
- Staircases are a focal point and can be reclad, repainted or fitted with a new balustrade. A new stair structure needs a technical design.
- Kitchens are often closed and narrow; opening them to the living area depends on whether the wall is load-bearing.
- Bathrooms stack above each other, so drainage runs are shared vertically and need care when relocated.
- Services are renewed by authorised partner installers under our coordination.
- Finishes: floors, plastering, smooth walls, painting and plasterboard ceilings.
What about the façade, roof and windows?
On many urbanisations each owner maintains their own façade and roof, but within rules set by the community — the same colour, the same type of frames, the same tiles. On others, the community carries out façade or roof work as a whole. The first question is therefore not technical: who is responsible, and what are the rules?
Once that is clear, the technical work is the same as on a detached house: façade repair and painting, roof repairs and window replacement. External wall insulation on a single townhouse needs particular care, because it changes the wall thickness and the junction with the neighbours; it is often better done for a whole block or not at all. We discuss this in when external insulation is not the answer.
How do you handle access and neighbours?
Townhouses are close together, and access can be narrow. Before starting we look at where materials will be stored, how debris will leave the site, whether a skip can be placed and where, and how to protect shared paths and gardens. Many communities ask for notice before works begin and set working hours; we plan within them.
Noise and dust are kept to the work area as far as possible, and we clean shared areas we have used. Party walls are treated with care: chasing for new services or fixing heavy items on a shared wall can be heard next door, so we plan those tasks for reasonable hours.
What should I check with the community before asking for a quote?
- Whether the façade, roof and windows are your responsibility or the community’s.
- Any rules on colours, materials, awnings, frames and roof finishes.
- Working hours and notice periods for works.
- Where vehicles, skips and materials may be placed.
- Whether the community has drawings of the original houses.
Bring the answers to the site visit and the quote will reflect them. If you are buying a townhouse to renovate, ask the seller or the administrator for the statutes and recent minutes before you commit.
Can a basement or roof terrace be improved?
Many townhouses have a semi-buried lower floor or a roof terrace that is barely used. A lower floor often suffers from damp and poor ventilation; before turning it into a bedroom or a games room, the cause of the moisture has to be identified, and if it comes from the ground a technician should assess it first. A roof terrace can become a genuine outdoor room, but its waterproofing protects the bedrooms below, so any new flooring, planters or fixings must be planned without puncturing the membrane. Covering or enclosing a terrace changes the outside of the house and normally requires both community consent and the town hall’s paperwork.
What about sound between neighbours?
Shared walls carry sound, and a renovation is a good moment to improve that. A lined partition with insulation on your side of a party wall can reduce airborne noise from next door, at the cost of a few centimetres of floor space. New floors laid over a resilient layer help with footfall noise between storeys of the same house. We explain the options at the visit and include them as separate lines, so you can judge whether the space and the cost are worth it for your house.
How is a townhouse quoted?
As with any house, we give a first estimate from photos and the approximate built area, then visit and prepare an itemised quote. Access restrictions, community working hours, protection of shared areas and the need to carry materials by hand all affect the work and appear in the quote where relevant. We do not publish prices; the factors are explained in our article on what drives renovation cost. If the community has to approve part of the work, we can split the quote so that the interior can start while the outside waits for consent.
Official sources
Bauman Raymond Attila · Reforma Villas Costa del Sol · Avenida Antonio Belón 3, Marbella. Last reviewed: 05/11/2026.
