Marbella

What is Marbella?

Marbella is a municipality in the province of Málaga, on the western Costa del Sol, and the reference point for the luxury property market in southern Europe. Its international reputation began in 1954, when Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe opened the Marbella Club on the family estate of Santa Margarita, and was cemented in 1970 with the opening of Puerto Banús. Since then, Marbella has been where people buy when they want sun all year round, city services and a landscape of villas and gated estates that exists nowhere else on the Spanish coast.

What sets Marbella apart from other coastal destinations is that it works twelve months a year. There are international schools, a reference hospital, top-tier shopping and a permanent resident community of dozens of nationalities. That is why the market does not collapse in winter, as happens in many holiday destinations, and why it is the first choice for those buying to live and not only to spend the summer.

Areas of Marbella: how the municipality is laid out

Marbella is not one town but several. The municipality reads from west to east, and each stretch has its own market, its own price per square metre and its own kind of buyer:

• Guadalmina Baja and Guadalmina Alta: family villas around Real Club de Golf Guadalmina, on the border with Estepona.
• San Pedro de Alcántara: a town with its own centre, boulevard and beach, at more contained prices than Puerto Banús a few minutes away.
• Nueva Andalucía: the Golf Valley, with Las Brisas, Aloha, Los Naranjos and La Cerquilla, behind Puerto Banús.
• Puerto Banús: the marina and the area with the most shopping and nightlife.
• Golden Mile: the five kilometres between Puerto Banús and the centre, with Puente Romano, the Marbella Club and, on the upper side, Sierra Blanca, Nagüeles and Cascada de Camoján.
• Marbella Centro: the old town, the Alameda and the promenade, the only part where you can live without a car.
• East Marbella: Los Monteros, Río Real, Elviria, La Mairena and Cabopino, with the widest beaches in the municipality.

Mixing these areas up is the most frequent mistake made by newcomers. A villa in Sierra Blanca and one in Elviria can have the same square metres and one be worth three times the other.

Beaches in Marbella

The Marbella coastline runs about 27 kilometres and changes completely from one end to the other. To the west, the beaches of Guadalmina and San Pedro are wide and quiet, beside the Roman remains of Las Bóvedas. In the centre, Fontanilla and La Venus are urban beaches, with the promenade and the old town on foot. To the east, Los Monteros and Elviria open into long stretches of sand with the best-known beach clubs, and Cabopino closes the municipality with the Artola dunes, declared a natural monument.

The Senda Litoral, the coastal walkway that the Málaga provincial council is building between Manilva and Nerja, already crosses much of the municipality and lets you walk from Puerto Banús to the centre along the shore.

Golf in Marbella

Marbella and its immediate surroundings hold one of the densest concentrations of golf courses in Europe. The main ones, with dates and designers:

• Real Club de Golf Las Brisas (1968), in Nueva Andalucía, designed by Robert Trent Jones.
• Aloha Golf Club (1975), in Nueva Andalucía, the last design by Javier Arana.
• Los Naranjos Golf Club (1977), in Nueva Andalucía, designed by Robert Trent Jones.
• Real Club de Golf Guadalmina: South course from 1959, designed by Javier Arana; North course from 1973.
• Río Real Golf (1965), in East Marbella, designed by Javier Arana.
• Santa Clara Golf, Santa María Golf, Greenlife Golf and Cabopino Golf, in East Marbella.

To these you can add, in the neighbouring municipality of Benahavís, La Quinta, Los Arqueros and the three Villa Padierna layouts. Buyers who come to Marbella for golf do not choose a course: they choose among many, all within twenty minutes.

International schools in Marbella

Schools are the reason many families settle in Marbella all year round. The three historic ones:

• Aloha College (1982), in Nueva Andalucía. It was the first fully bilingual school in Marbella and today teaches the British curriculum from ages 3 to 18, with IGCSE, A-levels and the International Baccalaureate.
• Swans International School (1971), with two centres in the municipality, one of them in Sierra Blanca.
• English International College (1978), in Elviria.

To these you can add the German School of Málaga, in La Mairena above Elviria, which explains the German-speaking community in East Marbella. The area with most schools within reach is Nueva Andalucía; the one with fewest is the lower Golden Mile.

What to see and do in Marbella

The Marbella old town keeps narrow streets and whitewashed houses around the Plaza de los Naranjos, the town hall square since the sixteenth century, with remains of the walls and the Moorish castle. By the sea, Avenida del Mar displays a group of Salvador Dalí sculptures in the open air, and the Alameda park links the centre with the promenade.

Outside the centre, life revolves around the Golden Mile hotels, the restaurants and shops of Puerto Banús and the beach clubs to the east. In summer the calendar is set by the San Bernabé fair in June and by the tournaments and concerts at the big hotels.

Getting to Marbella: airport, hospital and access

Málaga airport is about forty minutes away by motorway from the centre. There are two roads: the A-7, free and with traffic lights through the towns, and the AP-7 toll road, which avoids the jams in summer and at peak times. There is no train: the C-1 commuter line ends in Fuengirola and does not continue west.

Hospital Universitario Costa del Sol sits inside the municipality, beside the A-7 at Los Monteros, and is the public reference hospital for the whole western district. Several private clinics in the centre and on the Golden Mile add to it.

What kind of property do people buy in Marbella?

Marbella has every kind of product, but not everywhere:

• Urban apartments and penthouses in the centre, in San Pedro and in Puerto Banús.
• Apartments in landscaped developments with pools, above all in Nueva Andalucía, on the Golden Mile and in East Marbella.
• Large-plot villas in Guadalmina Baja, Los Monteros, Nagüeles and Sierra Blanca.
• Gated estates with security in Sierra Blanca, Cascada de Camoján and several communities in Nueva Andalucía.
• New developments, mostly on the Golden Mile hillsides and in East Marbella, because there is almost no land left on the front line.

It is the most expensive market per square metre on the coast and also the most liquid: anything sensibly priced sells, in any season.

Buying in Marbella with W Real Estate

W Real Estate lists the offer of the Costa del Sol agency network and its own exclusive mandates, and every property is reviewed before it appears here. If you are looking in a specific part of Marbella, the guide to each development explains what there is, what it costs and who it suits. And if you cannot find what you are after, ask us: the network covers far more than what is published.

Getting to Marbella

Indicative driving times in normal traffic conditions, not measured.

Property prices in Marbella

Figures calculated on the 205 properties W Real Estate lists in this area today. They are not whole-market statistics: they are the price of what is available right now.