idealista

Review by eFreeware

idealista is a property app from the Spanish company of the same name, built for buying, selling and renting homes, parking spaces and rooms across Spain, Italy and Portugal. It is free to download, carries no ads and offers in-app purchases. The main reason to consider it is the size of its catalog: the developer says there are over a million listings inside, which is the kind of inventory that makes a property app useful rather than merely convenient.

The app has been installed more than 10 million times and holds a 4.8 average from 512,138 ratings, figures that point to a broad, established user base in its three markets. Its most recent update, from October 8, 2026, reworked the chat so it can carry contracts, plans, booking or deposit documents and nota simples, which suggests the app is being positioned as a place to handle more of a transaction, not just the search that starts it.

The app is built around three jobs: finding a property, listing one, and communicating with the people on the other side.

Drawing your search area on the map

The feature I find most interesting is the map tool. You open the map and trace the area where you would like to live with your finger, and the app shows the listings inside that shape along with their prices. That is a more natural way to search than picking a neighborhood from a list, because you can follow a street you like, a school catchment or the edge of a district without knowing what the area is called.

Seeing prices alongside the pins also makes comparison quick. If you draw a generous shape over a city, you can scan what the same budget buys in different corners of it, which is the sort of thing that usually takes several searches on a conventional listing site.

For people who already know roughly where they want to be, the app can also surface properties near your current location. That is useful if you are standing in a neighborhood and want to know what is available around you, or if you are visiting a city and want to get a feel for its market.

Saving favorites and sharing the shortlist

Any property you like can be saved as a favorite, and the app supports collaborative lists. You can share a list with friends or family, and everyone can add notes, propose new favorites or remove the ones that are no longer in the running. For couples, flatmates or anyone helping a relative move, that turns a scattered group chat into a single shared shortlist.

The alert system is the other half of this. Saved searches can trigger instant alerts when a matching listing appears or a watched property drops in price. In a market where good places go quickly, that timing matters more than any filter.

The developer also offers a tenant profile. Advertisers tend to prioritize tenants who have completed one, so filling it in is one of the few things you can do on your side of the process to improve your chances. It is a small step, but it is the app's way of putting a face to an inquiry.

Chatting with advertisers and handling documents

Chat with advertisers is built in, so questions and viewing arrangements stay in the app, and you do not have to switch to another app to pass documents back and forth.

The developer frames this as keeping the security of the app in place at every stage of the transaction. I would treat that as a convenience argument rather than a guarantee, but the practical benefit is real: the conversation and the paperwork live in one thread, which is easier to follow than a mix of email, messaging and downloads.

For sellers and landlords, the same tools apply in reverse. The app gives you what you need to list a property and find a buyer or tenant, and the chat is where much of that contact will happen.

What you need before you start

The app is free to download and does not show ads, though it does offer in-app purchases. It covers three countries: Spain, Italy and Portugal. If your search is outside those markets, the catalog will not help you, and that is simply the scope the app is built around.

You install it, and the main actions are searching, saving and messaging. A tenant profile is optional, but advertisers tend to give priority to tenants who complete one, so it is worth filling in if you are renting.

The chat update means documents can be exchanged inside the app, which reduces the need for a separate channel once a conversation is underway.

Who gets the most from it

This app is best suited to people with a concrete reason to be looking at property in Spain, Italy or Portugal. That includes buyers comparing neighborhoods, renters hunting for a room or an apartment, and owners who want to list a home, a parking space or another property and reach a large audience.

It also fits anyone coordinating a search with other people. The collaborative lists and the shared notes are made for couples, families and flatmates who need one place to agree on what they are looking at, rather than trading links in several conversations.

If you are browsing out of curiosity rather than intent, the map and the alerts still work, but the app's value comes from being in the market. The tools are aimed at decisions, not daydreaming.

The 4.8 average across more than half a million ratings suggests the app meets expectations for a lot of people in those three countries. That is not a reason on its own to install it, but it is a reasonable signal that the core search and contact flow holds up.

A practical tool for the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese market

idealista is a free, ad-free property app with a catalog of over a million listings across Spain, Italy and Portugal, and a set of tools that cover searching, saving, alerting and messaging. The map drawing is the standout idea, because it lets you define an area on your own terms instead of choosing from a fixed list.

The trade-offs are the ones that come with a regional specialist. It is built for three countries, and its in-app purchases mean some parts of the experience may involve paying, though the core search is free. If your property search is in those markets, this is a sensible place to start.

Install it when you have a real search to run, and let the alerts and the shared lists do the work of keeping you current.

What's new in version 15.7.1

Our chat has been given a makeover and is now much more useful for you. You can now use it to send and receive contracts, plans, booking or deposit documents, “nota simples”, and so on. This means you won’t need to leave the chat to share these documents, nor will you have to rely on other apps to do so. You can therefore keep benefiting from the security our app offers at every stage of the transaction.