Europe’s tallest skyscraper doesn’t exist yet, but half of the apartments are already reserved

In Benidorm, the seaside resort with the most vertical skyline on Spain’s Costa Blanca, buyers are purchasing a building that does not yet exist. TM Tower, a 230-metre residential skyscraper designed by BakPak Architects and Gea Architects, is currently little more than a construction site, yet half of its 260 apartments have already been reserved. When completed in 2028, it will become Europe’s tallest residential skyscraper. The project, developed by TM Grupo Inmobiliario just a few metres from Poniente Beach, openly embraces the model of international luxury real estate in a city that has long been nicknamed the “Manhattan of the Mediterranean”. More than a conventional residential building, with over 10,000 square metres of shared amenities including heated swimming pools, gyms, a cinema, panoramic terraces, a nursery and even a sky bar with an astronomical observatory, TM Tower is already taking shape as a vertical resort.

The apartments, ranging from studios to the most exclusive residences with floor-to-ceiling glazing, are being sold at an average price close to 1 million euros. According to figures released by the Spanish developer, buyers are primarily from Poland and Spain — which together account for around 68 per cent of sales — followed by Ukraine and other Eastern European countries.

As surprising as it may sound, the rush to buy apartments off-plan is nothing new in the global property market, nor has it always proved to be a positive sign. Over the past two decades, many iconic residential developments have been sold long before construction was completed. In London, One Hyde Park, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners in the early 2010s, was almost entirely purchased before completion by international investors attracted by the symbolic value of the address. Yet many of those units remained empty for years, turning the development into one of the most emblematic examples of global real-estate speculation.

Benidorm is already familiar with this trajectory. Intempo, another landmark tower in the city — and the tallest building in Benidorm before TM Tower — became a symbol of the excesses of Spain’s property bubble during the 2008 financial crisis. Construction delays, financial difficulties, unsold apartments and the eventual collapse of the original developer slowed its completion, turning it for years into one of the most visible symbols of the Spanish real-estate crash.

The nationalities of TM Tower’s buyers tell another European story: that of an economic and political geography within the continent that is changing rapidly. In recent years, the Costa Blanca has become one of the leading property destinations for a new generation of investors from Eastern Europe, particularly Poland, attracted by a market that remains competitive for both second homes and investment opportunities.

The presence of Ukrainian buyers is more nuanced. For many, the Mediterranean property market also represents a relatively stable place to relocate capital following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Opening image: TM Tower. Render: courtesy Bakpak Architects