La Quinta, Benahavís, from the air: the hillside communities and the sea beyond

Area guide · The golf valley behind Nueva Andalucía

Property for Sale in La Quinta

The golf valley behind Nueva Andalucía, climbing from San Pedro towards Ronda. The course came first and everything else followed it up the slope.

689Resale properties for sale
in La Quinta today
€8,672/m²Typical asking price
for a villa here
1989The year the golf club
at the centre of it was founded
27 holesThree nine hole loops
that combine into one course

The place

A valley that was laid out around a golf course

La Quinta is the valley running north from San Pedro between the Ronda road and the Guadaiza river. It is a golf valley in the literal sense: the course was laid out before the houses were, and the shape of the address is still the shape of the fairways.

It is also, on paper, somewhere else. La Quinta sits in the municipality of Benahavís rather than Marbella, although you reach it from San Pedro and nearly everyone here treats Marbella as their town. That split decides which town hall you deal with.

The valley has a floor and a top and they are not the same purchase. Around the clubhouse the ground is gentle and the buildings sit close together; higher up the plots open out and the sea appears over the roofs below. Most of the disappointment here comes from buyers who priced one half and viewed the other.

We are not selling you a valley. We are here to help you buy the right house in it, with the homework done before you sign and the municipal line established rather than assumed.

A pool among the villas of La Quinta with La Concha in the distance

La Quinta from the slopes, La Concha in the distance. The open green through the middle is why the houses sit where they do.

Where exactly it is

Up the valley, from San Pedro to the high ground

The valley read the way it is driven, from the coast at San Pedro up towards Ronda rather than along the shore. La Quinta is the ground between the old Ronda road on the west and the Guadaiza river on the east.

Aerial map of the La Quinta golf valley in Benahavís above San Pedro, with numbered places
1
2
3
4
5
6
North
  • 1La QuintaThe valley itself, the course through the middle
  • 2Nueva AndalucíaThe next valley east, and the other half of the golf
  • 3San Pedro de AlcántaraThe town at the foot of the valley, about ten minutes
  • 4Puerto BanúsThe marina, roughly ten minutes east
  • 5La ZagaletaHigher again, behind its own gate, same municipality
  • 6GuadalminaOut on the flat by the sea, west of San Pedro

Orthophoto PNOA © Instituto Geográfico Nacional de España. Rotated so the area reads across the frame; the north mark keeps it honest. Pins mark the centre of each place, not a boundary.

There was nothing here

A river valley on the Ronda road, then a course, then a neighbourhood

The same frame of valley, flown twice, seventy years apart. In 1956 there is no golf here: the club was not founded until 1989. What came after it has been climbing the slope ever since.

The La Quinta valley in 1956, field boundaries and the road up to Ronda
1956American flight, before the first villa
The same frame of the La Quinta valley today
TodayCurrent national orthophoto

Nothing was added to these frames and nothing was moved. All that changes is how far up the valley the building has reached. Historic and current imagery © Instituto Geográfico Nacional de España, both rendered through one frame at one scale.

How it came to be

The course came first, the houses followed it uphill

Three rivers cross Benahavís and all of them rise in the Serranía de Ronda. Between the Guadalmina on the town’s eastern edge and the Guadalmansa on its western one, the Guadaiza runs twenty two kilometres down the left hand side of the road from Ronda to San Pedro, carrying the name of Aixa, the mother of Boabdil. La Quinta is the ground between that river and that road, farmland and a way through the hills long before it was an address.

The change came at the end of the eighties. The club was founded in 1989 and the course laid out by Manuel Piñero, who had won a Ryder Cup for Europe, with Antonio García. What they built was not a single eighteen. It is twenty seven holes in three nine hole loops that combine with each other, which is why three separate stretches of open green run through this valley rather than one.

The town hall’s own description of those loops is the clearest account of the place anyone has written. The A loop is called San Pedro: open ground, wide fairways, the bottom of the valley pointing at the sea. The B loop is called Ronda: narrower fairways, harder greens, climbing into the mountains behind the town. The C loop is gentler but full of changes of level and dog legs, which is what the middle of the valley does.

A five star hotel of a hundred and seventy rooms was built on the course, and the club has twice held the Open de España Femenino on the Ladies European Tour, in 2011 and again in November 2018. The houses have been working their way up the slope ever since.

A contemporary villa in La Quinta, Benahavís, with the mountains behind

A villa on the ground above the course. The higher you go, the more of the sea you see and the less you walk.

Founded 1989

The year the club was founded, which is why the valley is laid out around a golf course rather than a road.

Twenty seven holes

Three nine hole loops that combine, two of them named for the two ends of the valley.

Living here

A valley that stays open in February

The school run goes downhill and then a few minutes either way. Aloha College Marbella, in the next valley east, was founded in 1982 by six teachers and a group of parents as a not for profit school, was among the first in Spain to offer the International Baccalaureate and now has more than nine hundred pupils. Laude San Pedro International College is a similar distance the other way, taking children from two and a half to eighteen.

Healthcare comes from two directions. Benahavís runs its own health centre in the village, because this is your municipality rather than Marbella’s. The private hospitals people actually use are on the coast: Quirónsalud Marbella and Hospital Ochoa a short drive east, and Helicópteros Sanitarios has run a 24 hour home doctor and ambulance service out of Puerto Banús since 1988.

Everything is a short drive and almost none of it is a walk. San Pedro is about four kilometres down the valley and Puerto Banús about eight, so both are roughly ten minutes. Benahavís village is a quarter of an hour up the road and Málaga airport around an hour east. There is no train, so a car is part of life here in a way it is not on the seafront.

What the valley gives you that the coast does not is quiet with a clubhouse in the middle of it, and a hotel that keeps somewhere to eat and swim open through the months when much of this coastline closes. Above the course the ground climbs to a little over two hundred metres, and the top and bottom of that climb are different places to live.

A villa on the slope above the La Quinta valley at dusk

A villa on the slope at dusk. The course keeps the middle of the valley open, and that is what the houses look at.

Schools

Aloha College Marbella in Nueva Andalucía, founded 1982 and an early International Baccalaureate school in Spain; Laude San Pedro International College in San Pedro.

Healthcare

Benahavís runs its own health centre in the village; Quirónsalud Marbella and Hospital Ochoa are a short drive east, with a 24 hour home doctor service from Puerto Banús.

Getting about

Ten minutes to San Pedro or Puerto Banús, a quarter of an hour to Benahavís village, an hour to Málaga airport. No train, so a car is part of life.

Eating out

Benahavís calls itself the dining room of Andalucía and says it has the highest concentration of restaurants in the region. That village is your own town hall, fifteen minutes up the road.

What things cost

What is asked, and what was paid

Two numbers both get called “the price” here, and they are kept apart. Registered sale prices are only published by postcode, and this postcode is 29679, which covers almost the whole of Benahavís: the village, both golf valleys and the estates in the hills above them. Read the deed figure as the municipality rather than as this valley. The asking prices are La Quinta’s own.

Asking prices, per square metre

The bar is the middle half of what is being asked for each type in La Quinta right now, from the cheapest quarter to the dearest. The number in the row is the typical figure. Nothing here has necessarily sold at these prices; that is what the panel beside it is for.

Houses and villas€8,672/m² typical  ·  347 listed
€6,091€10,750
Penthouses€6,437/m² typical  ·  83 listed
€5,035€8,221
Apartments€6,028/m² typical  ·  207 listed
€4,901€7,379
€4,000/m²€12,500/m²

Asking prices per built square metre, resale stock listed in La Quinta, 689 properties in total, as at 8 August 2026. From our own records.

What buyers actually paid

Every figure here is a registered deed price, the amount declared in front of a notary when the sale completed, for postcode 29679. Homes completed this year at a typical €4,529 per square metre. Houses went for €5,498 over an average 371 square metres, against €5,498 for a Benahavís house.

Read the two panels together and the lesson is the usual one: asking prices run over standing stock, which quietly accumulates every overpriced home that never sells, while deeds count only what traded. The gap between them is mostly that selection effect, not a discount waiting to be claimed.

  • Postcode 29679, all homes€4,529619 deeds
  • Postcode 29679, apartments€3,627457 deeds
  • Postcode 29679, houses€5,498162 deeds
  • Benahavís, all homes€4,529619 deeds
  • Benahavís, houses€5,498162 deeds

JUST Real Estate analysis of registered deed prices, Portal Estadístico del Notariado, year to date, captured 15 August 2026. Postcode 29679 covers almost the whole of Benahavís, La Zagaleta and the golf valleys included. Prices are moving: the official house price index for Andalucía rose 4.1 per cent in the year to 2025 Q4 (INE); the index is not published below regional level.

What you can buy

The stock that actually exists here

689Resale properties
for sale in La Quinta
352Houses and villas,
51% of the stock
208Apartments,
30% of the stock
84Penthouses,
12% of the stock

No official body publishes what is available to buy, only what has already sold, so this part comes from our own intelligence. Through our network memberships we see every resale property listed through an agency on this coast, which means we know both what is genuinely on the market in La Quinta and where the same home is being advertised more than once. This covers resale stock only, not new construction sold directly by developers.

The shape of what comes up for sale says the valley is two markets wearing one name. The largest single share is a house on its own plot, the ground above and beside the course, and most of the rest is apartments and penthouses in the low rise blocks built around the golf. Very little bare land reaches the market. If you want a villa you are shopping in one part of the valley; if you want something to lock up and leave with a view down a fairway you are shopping in the other, and the two do not price alike.

  • Houses and villas35251% of listings
  • Apartments20830% of listings
  • Penthouses8412% of listings
  • Plots243% of listings
  • Townhouses101% of listings

Resale stock listed in La Quinta as at 8 August 2026, from our own records. Treat it as accurate to within five to ten per cent: a few near identical apartments in the same building are not always recognised as the same home when the sources are brought together.

Asking prices and supply as at 8 August 2026  ·  deed prices captured 15 August 2026  ·  refreshed each week

What it costs to own

The figure nobody official publishes

Every buyer eventually asks what a house here costs to hold, and no public body answers it. We can, because we record it. Across the La Quinta listings that publish their running costs, the median annual IBI is €789 and the median community charge €3,336: together €4,125 a year before utilities, staff, pool and garden.

The split is the part worth reading. The community charge does most of the work, because a great deal of what sells here sits inside a gated community with gardens, security and a shared pool. The tax is the smaller half, levied by Benahavís rather than Marbella on the Catastro’s value for the plot underneath, which is one more reason to establish which municipality a house sits in.

€4,125 a year puts this valley below the addresses around it rather than above them. Nueva Andalucía runs at €4,400 on the same measure, El Madroñal at €6,784 and La Zagaleta at €15,977, a different order of commitment entirely. That is not a reason to hesitate. It is a reason to have the number in front of you before you make an offer rather than after.

€789IBI
per year
€3,336Community charge
per year
€4,125Together,
per year
Pool and palms at a villa in La Quinta, Benahavís

The garden, the pool and the gate are what the community charge keeps. From our own records, 324 listings publishing running costs, as at 8 August 2026.

La Quinta compared to nearby areas

The valley and the addresses around it

Four of these five sit within a few hundred euros a square metre of each other on asking price, which tells you almost nothing about how different they are to live in. What separates them is what they cost to hold, so that is the order below.

AddressTypical asking, per m²ListedRunning costs, per yearCharacter
La Zagaleta€8,698132€15,977Highest and most private, behind its own gate
El Madroñal€8,491185€6,784The wooded hill to the west, large plots and old cork oaks
La Quinta€8,672347€4,125The golf valley itself, villas on the slope and apartments around the course
Nueva Andalucía€8,2461542€4,400The next valley east, more golf and a working town below
Guadalmina€6,460271€3,577Down on the flat by the sea, older, greener and level

Typical is the median asking price per built square metre for houses and villas listed in each area (apartments where an area has no villa stock) as at 8 August 2026; running costs are the median annual IBI plus community charge where enough listings publish them. From our own records.

La Quinta is the one on this list that is not really a single thing. Apartments and penthouses around the golf, villas on the ground above, so one name covers two different purchases. Which half is right depends mostly on how many months a year you intend to be here, and that is a conversation rather than a table.

Wider context: our guide to Marbella, area by area, and the Marbella property market data behind every figure on this page.

Who buys here

Three buyers, and what La Quinta gives each of them

The year-round home.

The valley works in February, which is not true of every golf address on this coast. A hotel on the course with a kitchen and a spa, two international schools within about ten minutes, and a town at the bottom of the road that keeps trading when the season ends.

The holiday home.

Everything that makes Puerto Banús worth visiting is roughly ten minutes downhill, and you come back up to a valley that is not part of it. For anyone who has owned nearer the marina and found the summer too loud, this is the answer.

The long hold.

The golf fixes the plan. Three nine hole loops run through the middle of this valley and none of that ground is coming back for housing, so the buildable land is the slope above it and there is a finite amount left.

Common questions

Questions we are asked about property for sale in La Quinta

Is La Quinta in Marbella or Benahavís?

Benahavís. The Catastro records the golf course and the land around it in Benahavís, postcode 29679, although you reach the valley from San Pedro and most residents treat Marbella as their town. The official street register carries an area called La Quinta Golf in both callejeros, Marbella’s and Benahavís’s, so the boundary runs through this valley. Establish which side a house sits on before you offer, because the town hall that handles its licences and bills its IBI follows the plot.

How far is La Quinta from Puerto Banús and San Pedro?

About ten minutes to either. San Pedro is roughly four kilometres down the valley and Puerto Banús roughly eight, with Nueva Andalucía in between. Benahavís village is a quarter of an hour the other way, Málaga airport around an hour east.

Is La Quinta a gated community?

No, it is a valley of several separate communities with a golf course through the middle of it, rather than one gated development. Many blocks and clusters have their own gate, gardens and charge, and the villa ground above is different again. Ask us about the specific community, because fees and security vary a great deal within one address.

What type of property for sale in La Quinta is most common?

Houses, but not overwhelmingly, which is what makes this valley unusual. Of the 689 resale properties listed here, 352 are houses, 208 apartments and 84 penthouses, with 10 townhouses and only 24 plots. That mix is the golf resort and the hillside above it sharing one name.

What does it cost to run a home in La Quinta?

Across the listings that publish their running costs, the median annual IBI is €789 and the median community charge €3,336, together €4,125 a year before utilities, staff, pool and garden. That is below Nueva Andalucía at €4,400 and well below La Zagaleta at €15,977. No official body publishes this figure. It comes from our own records.

How old is the golf course, and who designed it?

The club was founded in 1989 and the course designed by Manuel Piñero, a Ryder Cup winner, with Antonio García. Twenty seven holes in three combinable nines, and it has twice hosted the Open de España Femenino on the Ladies European Tour, in 2011 and again in November 2018.

For sale now

Current property for sale in La Quinta

What is for sale in La Quinta on our site right now, updated as listings come on and go off. For more detail on any home, or to arrange a viewing, get in touch with the team.

5 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis
La Quinta – Benahavis · JUST-V2397

5 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis

Nestled in the prestigious enclave of La Quinta, Benahavís, this distinguished villa enjoys a privileged setting in the heart of the Golf Valley, surrounded by world-class golf courses and breathtaking natural scenery…

  • 5 beds
  • 5 baths
  • Plot: 1,157 m²
  • Interior: 508 m²
€2,400,000€4,724/m²
4 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis
La Quinta – Benahavis · JUST-01183P

4 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis

La Quinta 193 is a south facing Mediterranean villa set frontline to the golf in La Quinta, Benahavis, one of the most complete residential resorts in the hills behind Puerto Banus. The house offers 373 square metres…

  • 4 beds
  • 5 baths
  • Plot: 1,035 m²
  • Interior: 373 m²
€2,950,000€7,909/m²
3 bedroom penthouse for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis
La Quinta – Benahavis · JUST-01121P

3 bedroom penthouse for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis

A rare southern-facing penthouse crowning the finest position within Buenavista de la Quinta, the flagship address that first announced La Quinta's ambition and, two decades on, has been reborn through a ground-up ren…

  • 3 beds
  • 3 baths
  • Interior: 177 m²
€1,950,000€11,017/m²
5 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis Sold
La Quinta – Benahavis · JUST-01062P

5 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis

Positioned on the hillside above La Quinta in Benahavís, this contemporary residence captures sweeping views across the golf valley toward the Mediterranean while offering a refined balance between modern architecture…

  • 5 beds
  • 6 baths
  • Interior: 352 m²
Sold
5 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis
La Quinta – Benahavis · JUST-00950P

5 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis

Set within the prestigious enclave of La Quinta, Tresora Villa C introduces a refined lifestyle defined by privacy, serenity, and panoramic Mediterranean beauty. This contemporary residence, created by Cogitari Homes,…

  • 5 beds
  • 5 baths
  • Plot: 1,160 m²
  • Interior: 577 m²
€5,195,000€9,003/m²
5 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis
La Quinta – Benahavis · JUST-00949P

5 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis

Tresora Villa B presents a refined contemporary lifestyle defined by tranquillity, architectural elegance, and the natural beauty that surrounds the exclusive gated enclave of Tresora Villas in La Quinta. The atmosphe…

  • 5 beds
  • 4 baths
  • Plot: 1,210 m²
  • Interior: 606 m²
€4,995,000€8,243/m²
6 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis
La Quinta – Benahavis · JUST-00915P

6 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis

Villa Nova represents the essence of contemporary Mediterranean living, where elegant design meets effortless comfort. This remarkable residence in La Quinta is created for those who appreciate refined architecture, o…

  • 6 beds
  • 5 baths
  • Plot: 1,231 m²
  • Interior: 581 m²
€4,695,000€8,081/m²
8 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis
La Quinta – Benahavis · JUST-00894P

8 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis

Perched atop the exclusive hills of El Herrojo Alto in La Quinta, Benahavís, Casa Orquídea is a true architectural masterpiece offering sweeping panoramic views and a lifestyle defined by serenity, sophistication, and…

  • 8 beds
  • 9 baths
  • Plot: 2,309 m²
  • Interior: 1,696 m²
€19,880,000€11,722/m²
7 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis
La Quinta – Benahavis · JUST-00861P

7 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis

Villa Aguila is a fully renovated luxury residence in Monte Halcones, Benahavís, offering seven bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms across three levels. Completed in 2022, the villa combines Andalusian architectural char…

  • 7 beds
  • 7 baths
  • Plot: 2,034 m²
  • Interior: 615 m²
€10,800,000€17,561/m²
6 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis
La Quinta – Benahavis · JUST-00837P

6 bedroom villa for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis

A three level villa in Lomas de La Quinta, designed by architect Carlos Lamas, its infinity pool set against panoramic sea views from a south facing terrace. La Quinta sits in the hills between Nueva Andalucia and Ben…

  • 6 beds
  • 7 baths
  • Plot: 1,398 m²
€6,995,000
4 bedroom town house for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis Sold
La Quinta – Benahavis · JUST-00807P

4 bedroom town house for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis

This fully renovated 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom townhouse is situated in a prime frontline golf position within La Quinta, Benahavís—one of the Costa del Sol’s most established and exclusive residential areas. Offering a b…

  • 4 beds
  • 4 baths
  • Interior: 198 m²
Sold
3 bedroom apartment for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis
La Quinta – Benahavis · JUST-00794P

3 bedroom apartment for sale in La Quinta, Benahavis

Situated in an exclusive boutique gated development in La Quinta, this three‑bedroom, three‑bathroom residence is designed to feel like a private villa. Striking architectural lines and panoramic sea views set a refin…

  • 3 beds
  • 3 baths
  • Interior: 175 m²
€2,295,000€13,114/m²

Free download

The Marbella Buyers Guide

Everything a buyer needs before the first viewing in La Quinta or anywhere else on the coast: the purchase process step by step, the taxes and fees, the checks that decide whether a property is sound, and how the market has actually been behaving.

  • ProcessReservation, private contract, completion at the notary, and the timings between them.
  • CostsTransfer tax, VAT on new build, notary, registry and legal fees, worked through on a real price.
  • ChecksCadastre, land registry, planning status, community accounts and running costs.

Prefer to read it online? The buyers guide page. Every figure on this page sits in the Marbella property market data.

The JUST Marbella Buyers Guide

Talk to us

Tell us which half of the valley you want

The ground around the course and the ground above it are two different purchases with one name on them. Tell us what the days should look like and whether you want a gate, and we will send you the homes that deliver it, with the honest drawbacks of each and the running costs in front of you.

A person reads this and a person replies, usually the same day. No automated drip, no passing your details to another agency, and no obligation to view anything.

JUST Real Estate was founded in Marbella in 2015. We have 25 years of experience in this market.

Contemporary villas on the hillside at La Quinta, Benahavís