Marbella City Guide

Marbella is the luxury capital of the Costa del Sol (Málaga province, Andalusia), where the Sierra Blanca mountains, crowned by La Concha, meet 27 km of Mediterranean coast. Its glamour is anchored by the Golden Mile, a prestige beachfront-to-hillside corridor running west toward Puerto Banús, the superyacht marina synonymous with designer boutiques, beach clubs and nightlife. The municipality blends a whitewashed Old Town around Plaza de los Naranjos with Nueva Andalucía's 'Golf Valley' and gated villa enclaves like Sierra Blanca and Cascada de Camoján, drawing British, Scandinavian, Dutch, German, Middle Eastern and Russian HNW buyers (~36% of residents are foreign nationals). Foreigners can buy property freely with no nationality restriction, but Spain ABOLISHED its Golden Visa (residency-by-property-investment), which closed to new applicants on 3 April 2025, a purchase no longer grants residency. Short-term tourist-rental (licencia turística) rules are tightening across Spain, and a January 2025 government proposal of an up-to-100% surcharge on second-hand homes bought by non-EU non-residents remains a contested proposal, not law.