Ally A. Says:
We are spending a week in Marbella, on Spain’s Costa del Sol this September.
We are deciding whether to buy a vacation home here or Málaga. Any advice?
IL Executive Editor Jennifer Stevens Says:
Hi Ally,
Marbella is one of Spain’s most upscale beach towns and perhaps its most stunning. This “pearl of the Costa del Sol” is legendary as a playground for the wealthy of Europe and beyond.
Marbella’s beachfront promenade invites sunning on the sand, sitting in seaside cafes, or shopping in trendy boutiques. Wide Avenida del Mar, which connects downtown’s boulevards with the oceanfront, displays surrealistic bronze sculptures by Spain’s acclaimed artist Salvador Dalí. Marbella’s historic old town oozes Andalusian charm. Cobblestone lanes create a shaded labyrinth interrupted by plazas filled with orange trees. Patrons in sidewalk cafes watch sparkling fountains as they sip cool white wine.
You’ll also want to visit the adjoining community of Puerto Banús, where luxurious yachts crowd the marina. You can go by boat on a catamaran that leaves from Puerto Deportivo in Marbella and drops you off in the heart of Puerto Banús. A return trip is possible. It leaves hourly, takes about half an hour, and costs $11 one way, $18 return.
A bustling town of around 140,000, Marbella has everything you could want as a part-time expat… big name grocery stores, a glut of restaurants and cafés, clothing stores from upscale Gucci to mainstream Zara, and a hospital.
Although this is where the European elite decamp for their fix of fun in the sun, real estate can still be affordable. Properties for sale start at around €125,000 ($136,585) for a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment about a 10-minute walk from the beach and promenade.
Málaga is also a good place to consider. As the gateway to the Costa del Sol, long one of Spain’s biggest beach-tourism regions, the international airport greets more than 19 million tourists a year.
Half of these tourists never spend time in Málaga itself, and that’s a shame. For this city of over half-a-million people (more than a million in the major metropolitan area) is lovely and lively, with a rich history, plenty of shops and museums, and food to die for.
For full- or part-time living, Málaga is a great choice for expats who want big-city life by the sea. As in other Spanish cities, centrally located living tends to be in apartments or condos that are small by U.S. standards. An acceptable size for a couple in a two-bedroom apartment is about 950 square feet. (Many Spaniards, in fact, live happily in 600-square-foot apartments.)
One especially pleasant location is Huelín. It’s just two or three miles from the historic center in a neighborhood known as the Carretera de Cádiz (Cádiz Highway).
Modern apartments in the 900-square-foot range, right in the historic center, can start at about €275,000 (roughly $ 300,487). In Huelín, you can find small apartments for sale in the €100,000 range (about $ 109,268), especially if you’re fine with an interior apartment or are willing to do some updating.
You can find a detailed breakdown of buying property in Spain in our comprehensive guidebook, Escape to Spain.
I would also strongly recommend you join Ronan McMahon’s Real Estate Trend Alert group. Ronan specializes in helping people find great off-market deals on overseas property, and sometimes brings fire sale deals on the Costa del Sol to his members.
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