Where it is
Nueva Andalucía starts on the inland side of the A-7 directly behind Puerto Banús and runs up the valley towards the mountains, with La Concha on its eastern flank. The Golden Mile is to the east across the Río Verde, San Pedro de Alcántara to the west, and the hills of Benahavís close the valley to the north.
The lower part, around the bullring and Centro Plaza, is a five-minute drive or a twenty-minute walk from the port. The upper part, past the golf courses, is a residential landscape of gated communities and villa streets with views down to the sea.
How it came to be
The developer José Banús laid out Nueva Andalucía in the 1960s as the residential hinterland of the marina that carries his name. The first course, Las Brisas, opened in 1968 to a Robert Trent Jones design; Aloha followed in 1975 and Los Naranjos, also by Trent Jones, in 1977. Between them they gave the area its nickname, the Golf Valley.
Development has filled in around the fairways ever since, which is why the housing stock is so varied: 1970s villas on generous plots, 1990s apartment communities, and a steady run of new contemporary houses replacing older ones.
What you will find there
Golf-side: apartments, penthouses and townhouses in gated communities with shared pools and gardens, many looking straight onto a fairway. This is the largest part of the market and the most liquid, with a wide choice at each price point.
Villa streets: detached houses in Las Brisas, Los Naranjos, La Cerquilla and the slopes below La Concha, from original Andalusian-style villas to full contemporary rebuilds. The top of this market competes directly with the Golden Mile and Sierra Blanca.
Prices are generally below the Golden Mile and Puerto Banús for equivalent property, with the exception of the best villa addresses. The spread between a golf-side apartment and a new-build villa in La Cerquilla is very wide, so agents tend to specialise by price band as much as by street.
Who it suits
People who will live here rather than visit: the valley has supermarkets, the Saturday market by the bullring, international schools, gyms and everyday restaurants that do not close in winter. Golfers, obviously. Families who want a house with a garden within reach of the coast and schools. Buyers who want Puerto Banús a short drive away but not on the doorstep.
It suits less well anyone who wants to walk to the beach, or who wants the quiet and views of the hillside; for those, the Golden Mile beachside and Benahavís respectively make a stronger case.
Practicalities
The A-7 runs along the bottom of the valley and the AP-7 toll road crosses the top of it, so both directions of the coast are easy to reach; Málaga airport is about 50 minutes. Inside the valley you will drive: it is hilly, spread out and not built for pedestrians beyond the lower streets.
Aloha College and the Swedish School are in the valley itself, and several other international schools are within a short drive. Nueva Andalucía has a long-established Scandinavian community, which shows in the agencies based here: several are Nordic-run and work in Swedish, Norwegian or Danish.
Choosing an estate agent in Nueva Andalucía
6 of the 29 agencies in our directory that list Nueva Andalucía as an area they serve actually have an office there. That matters more than the coverage claim: An agent based in the valley will know which communities have well-run owners' associations, which are dominated by holiday lets, and which streets get the afternoon shade from La Concha. Between them, the locally based agencies work in English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish.
Questions worth asking any of them: how many of their current listings are in Nueva Andalucía itself, whether they act for the seller on those, and how they are paid. Nothing on this page is influenced by who has claimed a profile or paid for anything.
- Andalucía RealtyCalle Poniente 106, 29660 Nueva Andalucía, Marbella
- Marbella Unique PropertiesC. Jesús Puente 25, Nueva Andalucía, 29660 Marbella
- NordicaAvenida del Prado s/n, Lorcrigolf locales 5 & 6, Nueva Andalucía, 29660 Marbella · Calle Rosalía de Castro 2, Nueva Andalucía, 29660 Marbella
- Roccabox Property GroupCalle Los Jazmines 468, Nueva Andalucía, 29660 Marbella
- Serneholt EstateCentro Plaza, Local 65-66, 29660 Nueva Andalucía, Marbella (head office)
- The Real Estate AgencyCentro Plaza, Av. de Manolete 1, Locales 11-12, 29660 Marbella
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
This guide is editorial: our description of the area, written to help you choose. Facts about individual agencies come from their own websites and are shown with sources on each profile.