Guides

Buyers budget for the price and then discover the bill. On a new-build home in Andalucía the purchase itself carries 10% VAT plus stamp duty; on a resale it carries transfer tax. The two routes are not taxed the same way, and on the same headline price the difference runs to tens of thousands of euros. Here is the full picture, using a €785,000 home in Estepona — the median new-build price in our...

Buying off-plan on the Costa del Sol is a normal transaction with unusual risk, because you are paying for something that does not exist yet. The risk is not that developers are dishonest. It is that buyers sign a reservation without asking seven questions that have clear answers — and that the answers are only easy to get before the deposit leaves your account. 1. Is there a building licence? Not a...

Buyers usually ask which area is "best". It is the wrong question. Benahavís, Estepona and Mijas are not three versions of the same market at three price points — they solve three different problems, and the numbers from our own portfolio show it plainly. AreaDevelopments in sampleFromMedianTo Benahavís5€3,495,000€6,695,000€7,450,000...

Most buyers arrive with a single number in their head — "Marbella is two million" — and then spend three weekends discovering that the same budget buys a three-bedroom apartment in one village and a villa with a pool in another. The gap is not small. In our own portfolio of 633 new developments, the median price in Mijas is €352,000. In Marbella it is €1,250,000. In Benahavís it is...