Our clients received the Q2 2026 Golden Triangle Market Report this week, ahead of its public release on Thursday 24 September. It covers the Golden Triangle property market of Marbella, Estepona and Benahavís, and the municipal edition, carrying the first official town by town count for the second quarter, follows on Tuesday 13 October. Clients get the figures first because they are the ones making decisions on them, and every number below is identical to what the public will read in the full edition.
Málaga province registered 9,387 home sales between April and June, 7.7% more than in the first quarter and 8.7% more than a year earlier, while Spain as a whole fell on both measures, which in our view made it a good quarter for the Golden Triangle property market. We set out the provincial Registry figures in August in our first look at the Q2 numbers, so this post covers what the full report adds, town by town.
The Golden Triangle property market against the rest of Spain
The Land Registry (Registradores de España) published its second quarter figures on 7 August, when Spain recorded 167,934 sales, 5.7% fewer than in the first quarter, and the gap between the province and the country that contains it runs to more than thirteen percentage points. A national headline about Spanish property says very little about the Golden Triangle property market, where the buyers, the homes and the way purchases are financed all differ from the national picture.
Price held while volume rose, the registered price per built square metre in Málaga reaching €3,347, 34.6% above the Spanish average and 10.8% higher over twelve months, and the growth of the quarter came from homes that already exist. Resale transactions rose 16.2% to 6,420, the second largest increase of any Spanish province, while new build fell 7.0% to 2,967.
Foreign buyers took 37.01% of every purchase in the province, more than twice the national share of 15.98%, and just over two thirds of them live outside Spain. We covered who those buyers are in our post on foreign buyers in Málaga. For the Golden Triangle property market the useful point is breadth, since no single economy or currency governs demand here and a shock to any one of them moves this market less than it would a narrower one.
Why the report arrives in two editions
A sale in Spain is counted three times, by the notary who records the deed, by the Land Registry which registers it and by Spain’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda (MIVAU) which compiles the figure for each town, and because each body publishes on its own clock the same sale reaches the statistics at three different moments. The Registry closed the second quarter on 7 August while the town counts for Marbella, Estepona and Benahavís do not exist until MIVAU publishes them on 1 October.
So we publish twice for every quarter, and the province edition is never withdrawn, because the municipal edition fills the spaces the first holds open, on the same pages and in the same order. A reader comparing the two sees exactly what changed and why, and the dates on our calendar move with each body’s own release calendar.
The municipal edition on 13 October will carry the final first quarter count for the three towns and the first count for the second. The first quarter figures published in June are still provisional, 1,566 sales across the three towns against 2,243 a year earlier, and we expect them to be revised upwards when MIVAU finalises them. We quote them as published, and we would not read a count that is still arriving as a change of trend in the Golden Triangle property market.
Marbella and its three prices
Marbella has three different prices, each measuring a different event, with buyers declaring €4,695 per built square metre on their deeds in the twelve months to the September refresh of the General Council of Notaries (the Notariado), across 3,941 deeds at an average of €780,941 for 166 square metres. Valuers assessed homes at €4,528 in the second quarter and the Registry recorded €3,347 across the whole province.
MIVAU published the valuation figure on 17 September, and Marbella stands 15.6% higher than a year earlier across 748 valuations, which in our view shows how comfortable the banks are with the Golden Triangle property market. The deed price remains the one we would put in front of a buyer or seller, because it records what was actually paid rather than what a lender assessed.
The spread inside the town is wider than the spread between the towns, with postcode 29602 achieving €5,636 per built square metre against €4,120 in 29604, which covers Elviria, a difference of 37%, and Nueva Andalucía and Puerto Banús, in 29660, sitting at €4,727 across 1,057 deeds. In our experience a home in Marbella is priced off its postcode rather than the municipal average, and the Marbella market report carries the figures for all six.
Across 2025 Marbella registered 4,399 sales, 7.3% fewer than in 2024, a far gentler movement than one provisional quarter suggests. New build made up only 9.7% of the town’s first quarter, so a seller of a well located existing home competes with very little new stock, which in our view is what has kept prices firm. Our guide to Marbella covers the town area by area.
JUST Real Estate has tracked sold data across Marbella, Estepona and Benahavís over many years and has compiled the JUST Intelligence Database™, which holds data no other agency has. Our clients read this report a week before its public release, and we set its figures against the sales around any home they are buying or selling.
Estepona, where new build still arrives
Estepona sold more new build homes than either neighbour in 2025, 888 against 450 in Marbella and 23 in Benahavís. New build made up 18.7% of its first quarter sales, roughly double Marbella’s share, which is the clearest difference between the two towns in the Golden Triangle property market and the reason a new build buyer looks west. The town registered 3,466 sales across 2025, 9.6% more than in 2024, so the last full year was one of growth.
On the deeds Estepona achieved €3,483 per built square metre, at an average of €436,254 for 125 square metres across 3,150 deeds. That sits 26% below Marbella per square metre, on homes that are themselves a quarter smaller. Valuers placed the town at €3,518 in the second quarter, 12.1% higher than a year earlier, so Estepona’s valuation now sits slightly above its own deed price. Lenders are more confident in the town than its deeds alone would suggest.
The town’s four postcodes sit far closer together than Marbella’s, from €3,275 per built square metre in 29693 to €3,807 in 29689, a spread of 16% against Marbella’s 37%, so the choice of postcode moves the price far less here than a few kilometres east. The Estepona market report and our guide to Estepona cover the town in full.
Benahavís and the largest homes in the Golden Triangle property market
Benahavís is much the smallest of the three towns by volume and the largest by average purchase. Buyers there paid €4,540 per built square metre on the deeds, at an average of €987,020 for 217 square metres across 624 deeds, the only one of the three where the average purchase exceeds €900,000. A purchase in Benahavís averages 26% more than one in Marbella and yet costs 3% less per built square metre, because the homes are on average 31% larger.
New build in Benahavís peaked at 403 registrations in 2006 and ran at 23 in 2025, a fall of 94.3% across two decades, while resale rose from 95 sales in 2004 to 688. A buyer set on a new home in the municipality is choosing from a handful a year, and the market is, for now, almost entirely resale, a scarcity that supports every well kept house already standing there.
Annual volume peaked at 1,127 in 2022 and ran at 711 in 2025, and in our experience that reflects how few homes of the right kind reach the Golden Triangle property market rather than any shortage of buyers. Prices vary so widely between the urbanisations that the municipal figure is a starting point for any particular home. The Benahavís market report and our guide to Benahavís go further.
Dearer borrowing and a Golden Triangle property market that held
The twelve month Euribor averaged 2.783% across the second quarter against 2.102% a year earlier, and it was still rising in July at 2.855%. On a 25 year loan of €600,000 that movement adds about €200 a month. Volume and price in the province advanced regardless, which is not the shape a market driven by cheap credit produces, and buyers noticed the cost and bought anyway.
In our experience a significant proportion of purchases here are completed with equity rather than debt, particularly at the upper end, so in the Golden Triangle property market rate movements weigh on sentiment more than on completions. Apartments below a million euros are far more sensitive to the cost of finance than villas at five million. We looked at the mortgage side in more detail in our post on the Andalucía mortgage market, and any buyer budget built on the rates of eighteen months ago is the first thing we recheck.
Houses, apartments and the supply behind the Golden Triangle property market
Homes started in the province have exceeded homes completed in every year since 2022, 10,021 against 6,248 in 2025, so the pipeline is lengthening. Of the 878 new build homes sold on the free market in the first quarter, 777 were apartments, 88.5% of the total, so what is being built adds to one part of the market far faster than to the other, and in the Golden Triangle property market a new detached house is the scarcer asset.
The average Málaga home cost €366,429 in the first quarter, a new build €479,657 and a resale home €350,449, a premium of 36.9% that is partly the price of a different product. The top of the market grew fastest, with sales above €1,050,000 rising from 311 in the first quarter of 2025 to 465 in the fourth. A growing share of those million euro sales now involves smaller homes, so price growth is reaching further down the size range than it was.
Anyone weighing an off plan apartment against an existing house should count the wait for completion as part of the price, and our guide to off plan explains how the stage payments and bank guarantees work. We establish the build programme and the payment schedule before any reservation is paid, and our buyers guide sets out the rest of the purchase from reservation to notary.
The outlook for the Golden Triangle property market
Should conditions continue as they have, we expect the province to stay within the band it has held for seven quarters, between 8,637 and 9,740 sales, rather than break out of it, since buyers are there and careful on price while good property remains short, and that is what holds volume where it is. We would judge any slowing across a full year rather than on one or two quarters, and on that basis the slightly lower twelve month total to June reads as a market short of homes to sell rather than of buyers.
For owners in the Golden Triangle property market that is a strong position, and a seller who prices against a settled count rather than a provisional one argues from the stronger number. Our valuation calculator gives a first figure in minutes, and selling with JUST means that figure is set against the closed sales we hold for the street. For buyers the constraint is choice more than price, so tell us what you are looking for and we will show you what fits before it reaches the portals. Past editions sit in our reports library.
Questions about the Golden Triangle property market
When is the JUST Q2 2026 market report published?
The province edition of the JUST Q2 2026 Golden Triangle Market Report is released publicly on Thursday 24 September 2026, after our clients received it first. The municipal edition, with the first official Q2 count for Marbella, Estepona and Benahavís, follows on Tuesday 13 October 2026.
How many homes were sold in Málaga province in Q2 2026?
The Land Registry registered 9,387 home sales in Málaga province between April and June 2026, 7.7% more than in the first quarter and 8.7% more than a year earlier, while sales across Spain fell.
What is the price per square metre in Marbella in 2026?
Buyers in Marbella declared €4,695 per built square metre on their deeds in the twelve months to September 2026, according to the Notariado. Valuers placed the town at €4,528 in the second quarter, 15.6% higher than a year earlier.
Why are Marbella sales figures for Q2 2026 not published yet?
The Ministry of Housing compiles town by town sales counts about three months after a quarter closes, and publishes the second quarter of 2026 on 1 October. Our municipal edition carries those figures for the Golden Triangle property market on 13 October.
How do Benahavís prices compare with Marbella and Estepona?
In the Golden Triangle property market Benahavís has the largest average purchase at €987,020 and €4,540 per built square metre on the deeds, against €4,695 in Marbella and €3,483 in Estepona. Ask us and we will set any home against the sales around it.
Informed decisions in the Costa del Sol property market begin with reliable data, and the JUST Q2 2026 Golden Triangle Market Report sets out the province edition in fifteen pages, with the municipal edition following on Tuesday 13 October 2026 once the first official second quarter town counts are published.
DOWNLOAD OUR Q2 2026 MARKET REPORT NOW
Free to read and free to quote, provided any figure is attributed to JUST Real Estate and names the edition it came from.
Previous reports
Q1 2026 | Q4 2025 | Q3 2025 | Q2 2025 | Q1 2025 | Q3 2024 | every earlier quarter in our reports library
Research enquiries:
James Evans — Managing Partner
📞 +34 643 390 376 | ✉️ james@justrealestate.es
Sales enquiries:
Alina Evans — Partner
📞 +34 600 689 749 | ✉️ alina@justrealestate.es
FAQ
Is the JUST Q2 2026 Golden Triangle Market Report free to download?
The report is free to download and free to quote, provided any figure is attributed to JUST Real Estate and names the edition it came from, and it covers the residential markets of Marbella, Estepona and Benahavís.
Who is the Q2 2026 report written for?
It is written for buyers, sellers, investors, developers, relocation clients and family offices who want accurate, data led insight into the Costa del Sol property market, and journalists are welcome to quote it.
Where do the figures in the Q2 2026 report come from?
Every figure comes from an official body, the Land Registry (Registradores de España), the General Council of Notaries (Notariado), Spain’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda (MIVAU), the National Statistics Institute (INE), the Bank of Spain and Aena, and we read them alongside our own market observations and research.
How often does JUST publish the market report?
JUST Real Estate publishes the report every quarter in two editions, the province edition about six weeks after the quarter closes and the municipal edition once MIVAU has published the town counts, which for the second quarter of 2026 is 13 October 2026.
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