Wanted: Apartment

Certainly there are plenty of 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartments well within your price range along the coast of south Costa Blanca.  But you want to rent it out for holiday purposes then you must buy an apartment in a community that allows holiday letting and in an area where the Town Hall will issue a certificate of Compatibility, plus the apartment must meet the requirements for the Tourist License.  If you cannot get a Certificate of Compatibility from the Town Hall then you cannot apply for a Tourist License - no license means you cannot let the property out for holiday purposes.

You also need to allow time for the license application process - even town halls that are issuing the certificates needed for the application process (handled by the Office of Tourism in Alicante) are generally very slow in doing so.  The application will also take a number of weeks to be processed as well.  You cannot advertise without the license.  Bear in mind the additional costs - keyholders, tax (24% on the gross after transition if you are a UK resident!), insurance, advertising and wear and tear.  

So do your sums carefully and check out the legal requirements on licenses, plus when you have decided on your preferred areas ask which of the town halls in those areas are issuing certificates.  When you start looking for the property ensure you make it very clear that you are looking for a license compliant property but bear in mind that estate agents employ sales people who are not legally trained and estate agents work for the seller, not the buyer.  YOUR independent solicitor is the person who will need to make the checks before you sign anything, he/she is the person who works on your behalf.  Pay your deposit to your solicitor only with the written instruction that initial checks on the suitability of the property as a licensed holiday let must be done before anything proceeds.