Property for sale in Málaga

Buying a house in Málaga is a different exercise from buying in a resort on the same coast. The beaches are in the city itself, either side of the port, but the rhythm comes from the university, the hospitals and the courts rather than from the season. Little changes in November: the bakery stays open and your neighbours live there all year. That draws buyers who work here, work remotely or have a child at university, and fewer buyers who only come for the summer. What you buy into is a Spanish city that happens to sit on the sea.

Most foreign buyers start in the east. Pedregalejo and El Palo are former fishing quarters with low houses along a promenade lined with terraces, lively on summer evenings and village-like the rest of the time. Behind them, on the hillside, El Limonar and Cerrado de Calderón are quiet villa districts that are also home to the city’s international schools. In the centre and Soho you live among bars and culture, with everything on foot and little peace. Teatinos in the west is modern, built around the university and the main hospital, with the metro on the doorstep. Puerto de la Torre sits higher up, further from the sea, and is calmer.

Most of what is for sale is an apartment. In the centre that often means an old building refurbished inside; in Teatinos and the newer districts, a block with a lift, a garage and sometimes a communal pool. A villa with a garden is scarce in Málaga and almost only found in the hillside districts to the east. New builds appear mainly on the edges of the city, where there is still land; current projects are listed on the new-build page for Málaga. With a renovated building, look past the finish: pipework, the roof and the plans of the owners’ community decide what you will still be paying in the years ahead.

Málaga suits people who want city life with the sea close by, and people who fly often: the airport lies within the municipality. That same airport is the drawback in the south-west. In Churriana and the surrounding neighbourhoods you hear the aircraft, and Aena has included homes there in its sound insulation scheme. Residents of the historic centre complain about noise at night, especially in summer and around the feria. If you want space, a garden and quiet, the city gives you little of that for your money, and the hills outside are a better bet. On days with the terral, the hot land wind from the north, the city can get exceptionally hot.

From the airport the suburban train takes about a quarter of an hour to the centre; the same line runs the other way past Torremolinos and Benalmádena to Fuengirola. Two metro lines link the centre with Teatinos and the university, and high-speed trains leave María Zambrano station for Madrid. The city has two large teaching hospitals. The international schools are clustered in the east; the German school often listed under Málaga is actually near Marbella. There are a few golf courses within the city, but keen golfers usually drive west along the Costa del Sol.