Getting an empty home ready for your arrival

There's a moment every overseas owner knows well: the key turns, the door opens, and you find out what your home has been doing while you were away. Sometimes it's wonderful. Sometimes it's a musty smell, a tripped fuse box, and a garden that looks mildly offended.

Our arrival-ready routine exists to make sure it's always the first kind of moment. When we know you're coming, we don't just tidy — we wake the house up properly, the way you'd want to walk into it.

It starts with air. The AC is run and checked in every room, filters cleaned, so the house is cool and fresh rather than stale. Windows are opened to air the rooms, shutters lifted, lights tested. Then water: taps run in every bathroom, toilets flushed, the water heater checked and brought up to temperature, and a look under every sink for the slow drips that love to appear in empty houses.

Electrics get a careful once-over — fuse box checked, appliances tested, fridge cleaned and running cold so you can shop on the way from the airport. Outside, the pool is balanced and sparkling, the garden tidied, terraces swept and furniture set out. If anything has gone wrong while the house slept — a leak, a pest visitor, storm damage — we've already found it and dealt with it before you land.

The finishing touches are our favourites: beds can be made, essentials stocked, the kettle ready. Because the point of a home on the Costa del Sol is the feeling of arriving, not a to-do list.

And of course, everything is photographed and logged in your Property Vault before you arrive — so you can see your home is ready before you've even boarded the plane. Tell us your dates, and we'll take care of the rest.