A working scout-book for Spain: Balearic fincas and villas, Andalusian estates, Madrid design hotels, Barcelona streets, Canary modernism and Alicante coast. One agency, production-first, honest about where our roster is strongest and where we bring in partner crews to extend it.
Lovely Locations is a production-first scouting agency. We’ve built our Spain practice the same way we built Mallorca and Ibiza: starting from properties we’ve personally walked, lit and shot in, then extending through vetted partner crews into Madrid, Barcelona, AndalucÃa and the Canary Islands.
Our strongest coverage is the Balearics — Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca — where we have three specialist sub-brands and a dense roster of villas, fincas and beach clubs. Mainland Spain and the islands we serve via a tighter curated list plus a partner network: real options, less volume. We’ll tell you honestly where we can put ten shortlists in front of you and where we can put three.
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Our deepest bench — hundreds of villas, fincas, hotels and beach clubs we’ve scouted in person. If you want a villa photo-shoot, a film production base, a fashion shoot or a corporate retreat in the islands, start here.
Explore Balearics →Madrid design hotels, Barcelona creative neighbourhoods, Andalusian fincas, Alicante coast. Curated selections plus a partner network for anything at scale — feature films, multi-region commercial campaigns, national events.
Explore mainland →
Volcanic landscapes, modernist houses, year-round Mediterranean climate and Spain’s most aggressive film-tax incentive: 54% on the first million, 45% above. The obvious home for feature films and long-form international production.
Explore Canaries →Article 36.2 LIS gives foreign productions 30% on the first €1M of Spanish spend, 25% above, capped at €20M per feature (€10M per episode). The Canary Islands extend that to 54%/45% — among the most generous regimes in Europe.
Volcanic Canaries, Andalusian hills, Mediterranean coast, Pyrenees, Atlantic north, Madrid urban, Barcelona architecture, Balearic islands. Few countries give you desert, jungle-read, Alpine, coastal and metropolitan inside one tax regime and one crew base.
AndalucÃa, Valencia, Alicante and the islands deliver roughly 300 sunny days a year. The Canaries extend the usable window into winter, when northern Europe is grey. That adds weeks of schedule flexibility against a UK or German production calendar.
Madrid is the national production capital. Barcelona carries strong commercial and fashion crews. Mallorca has its own resident Balearic crew pool. Between them you can staff a union-standard feature, a stills shoot and a live event in parallel without flying everyone in.
Roughly 2–2.5 hours by air from London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and Milan to Madrid, Barcelona, Mallorca or Málaga. Crews can land morning, scout afternoon, shoot tomorrow — which keeps small-to-mid budgets viable where long-haul wouldn’t be.
Spain Film Commission plus regional offices (Madrid, Barcelona, Balearics, Canaries, AndalucÃa) actively want international productions. Major-city ayuntamientos generally turn around commercial filming permits inside 7–15 working days when filed cleanly.
Foreign productions shoot under Article 36.2 of Law 27/2014 (LIS): 30% of Spanish-eligible spend on the first €1,000,000 and 25% above, capped at €20M per feature and €10M per episode of a series. Minimum spend is €1M in Spain (€200,000 for animation) and the production must run through a Spanish production-services company registered with the ICAA and hold a Cultural Certificate. The Canary Islands run a parallel regime at 54%/45% with its own caps (€36M feature, €18M episode). In practice this means you want a Spanish service producer involved from the first call, not retro-fitted at the end — we work with certified partners in Madrid, Barcelona and the Canaries and bring them in early on any brief where the incentive is load-bearing.
Madrid is your default when the brief is urban-neutral, needs a full crew base and wants rapid permits — the capital handles commercial filming in 7–15 working days and the airport reaches half of Europe in under three hours. Barcelona suits fashion, architecture-led commercials and anything wanting GaudÃ-era texture or Poblenou beach-plus-industrial. AndalucÃa — Málaga, Seville, Ronda, Granada — is where you go for Moorish palaces, white hill towns and warm light ten months a year. The Canaries are for volcanic landscape, year-round shooting and maximum tax incentive. The Balearics are our specialism for villa and island briefs. Match the region to the real look, not the nearest airport.
Spain’s permit layer is municipal, not national — each ayuntamiento runs its own commercial-filming process. Madrid typically lands in 7–15 working days, Barcelona around 5, Valencia up to 30, Seville around 10. National-park, historic-monument and beach shoots pull in extra consents: Demarcación de Costas for the shoreline, Patrimonio for protected buildings. Drones are regulated by AESA (Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Aérea) — not AENA — and any commercial UAS operation needs a registered operator and flight authorisation. We file through licensed local operators rather than flying in our own; it’s faster and keeps the insurance chain clean. Budget a realistic two-week window for any shoot that crosses municipal boundaries.
Spain has three genuine crew bases — Madrid, Barcelona and Mallorca — plus Tenerife for Canary-island work and a growing pool in Málaga and Valencia. For single-location shoots we staff from the nearest base. For multi-region jobs — say a two-day Madrid plate shoot, three days in Mallorca and a Canary finish — we’ll typically carry a small travelling unit (DoP, 1st AC, director’s department) and pick up camera, lighting and grip locally at each stop, which is cheaper than trucking kit across the Peninsula. High-spec digital cinema and stills packages rent in Madrid and Barcelona at rates broadly comparable to London; niche specialist gear sometimes still ships from Berlin or London.
If you have a rough brief — dates, format, budget range, the look or region you’re chasing — we can have three to five shortlisted Spain venues in your inbox within 24 hours. We’ll tell you up-front whether your brief sits inside our strong Balearic roster, on the mainland where we lean on partner crews, or somewhere we’d honestly recommend a different country. The shortlist itself is free; agency fees apply only if you move forward with full production or coordination support.
Article 36.2 LIS gives foreign productions 30% of Spanish-eligible spend on the first €1M and 25% above, capped at €20M per feature and €10M per episode. You need a minimum €1M Spanish spend (€200,000 for animation), a Spanish production-services company registered with the ICAA, and a Cultural Certificate from the Ministry of Culture. The Canary Islands run 54%/45% under a parallel regime. We always recommend involving a Spanish service producer from the first planning call.
Yes, and we’ll be honest about the shape of that support. Our densest roster is in Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca, where we have specialist sub-brands and hundreds of vetted properties. In Madrid, Barcelona, AndalucÃa, Alicante and the Canaries we run a tighter curated list — the venues on this page — plus a partner network of local scouts, service producers and fixers. For single-region shoots it’s seamless. For multi-region briefs we coordinate the whole thing from one point of contact.
Depends on the look and the objective. Villa and island briefs — Balearics. Urban-neutral with permits fast — Madrid. Architecture-led, fashion, commercial — Barcelona. Moorish palaces, white towns, warm light — AndalucÃa. Volcanic landscape, year-round window, maximum tax incentive — Canaries. Corporate offsites — all five regions work, each with a different character. Send us the brief and we’ll come back with a matched-region shortlist rather than a long one.
Permits are municipal, so it depends on the city. Madrid typically turns around commercial filming in 7–15 working days. Barcelona is fast, around 5 days. Valencia can stretch to 30 days. Seville sits around 10. National-park, beach (Demarcación de Costas) and heritage-building (Patrimonio) shoots pull in extra consents. Drones require AESA authorisation via a licensed operator. We generally advise a two-week permitting window for anything crossing municipal boundaries.
AndalucÃa, Valencia, Alicante and the Balearics average roughly 300 sunny days a year. Spring (April–June) and autumn (September–October) are the sweet spot — warm, low-humidity, long light. July and August are workable but hot for interior-heavy or physical shoots. The Canary Islands extend the usable window into winter, which is why international productions anchor there December–March when northern Europe is grey.
Yes — stills and film are both core. Our villa-photo specialism started in the Balearics and extends into Mallorca-villa, Spain-villa and Spain-villa-film-production landers. For stills we source properties that light well for editorial and campaign work, with property owners who genuinely understand crews. Same roster often works for both film and stills; we’ll flag where a venue is stills-only because access or contract terms don’t stretch to a full film unit.
Send us dates, format (film / stills / event / retreat), group or crew size, budget range, and the region or look you’re chasing if you have one. Within 24 hours we come back with three to five shortlisted Spain venues — availability-checked, with real photos, capacity and technical notes, an honest pros/cons view for your brief, and a clear note on whether we’re pulling from our own roster or our partner network. No obligation.
