Málaga Home Sales | A Strong August Lifts the Province 6%

Málaga home sales rose to 2,564 in August 2026, up from 2,418 a year earlier, according to the INE figures published on 26 October. That is a rise of 6.0%, set against 3.4% for Spain as a whole and just 0.7% for Andalucía, so the province grew almost nine times faster than the region around it. The count comes from completed transfers registered in the property registries, which makes it a record of homes that actually changed hands rather than a survey of asking prices.

August is the quietest month in the Spanish property calendar, with notaries, lawyers and buyers all on holiday, so a rise in that month says more about underlying demand than a rise in spring would. It also follows a softer July. For anyone watching the coast between Marbella, Benahavís and Estepona, the figure is the first official confirmation that the second half of 2026 has started on a firmer footing, and it sits well alongside what we reported in the JUST Q2 2026 Market Report.

Málaga home sales in August 2026, by the numbers

The INE splits each month into new build and resale. Of the 2,564 Málaga home sales in August, 839 were new homes and 1,725 were resales, against 808 and 1,610 in August 2025. Resale grew 7.1% and new build 3.8%, so both halves of the market moved in the same direction, which is not always the case on this coast.

Free market homes accounted for 2,481 of the total, with 83 sales of protected housing, the VPO homes sold at a regulated price. Málaga province alone produced 27.2% of every home sale in Andalucía that month, out of a regional total of 9,427. No other Andalusian province comes close to that share, which is why the regional average so often understates what is happening here.

Set across the full twelve months, Málaga home sales have held in a narrow band of roughly 2,500 to 3,400 a month, with October 2025 the high point at 3,416. There has been no collapse and no spike. Buyers have kept arriving at a steady rate through a year in which mortgage costs, new taxes on non resident buyers and the debate over tourist rentals all made headlines.

How Málaga home sales compare with Andalucía and Spain

Spain recorded 49,319 home sales in August, up 3.4% on the same month of 2025, with new homes up 4.9% and resale up 3.0%. Andalucía managed 9,427, up only 0.7%, held back by weaker provinces inland. Málaga home sales therefore outpaced the national figure by close to double and the regional one by a wide margin.

The gap has a clear cause. International buyers, who make up a far larger share of the market on the Costa del Sol than anywhere else in the region, keep buying through the summer because that is when they are here to view. Our analysis of foreign buyers in Málaga in Q2 2026 showed the same pattern, and it is the main reason Málaga home sales tend to hold up in months when domestic buyers go quiet.

August against July, and why the summer dip matters

July 2026 was the weaker month. The province recorded 2,773 sales that July against 3,250 in July 2025, a fall of 14.7%, so the August recovery came straight after the softest reading of the summer. Read together, the two months show buyers shifting their completions later into the season rather than leaving the market.

August is also the low point of the year almost every year. In 2025 it was the quietest month of all, at 2,418, and the figure for August 2026 is once again the lowest in the latest twelve months. Comparing August with August removes that seasonal effect, which is why the 6.0% rise is the cleanest signal in the release and why Málaga home sales are best read year on year rather than month on month.

Completions are also lumpy at the top end. A development handing over keys can add a hundred new home sales to the registry count in a single month, and a quiet month for handovers takes them away again. That is part of the reason new build swung more than resale through the summer, and it is why we look at several months together before drawing conclusions about Málaga home sales in any one area.

The year to date, read honestly

One strong month does not make a year, and the cumulative figure tells a more measured story. From January to August 2026 the province recorded 23,047 sales, against 24,203 in the same eight months of 2025, a fall of 4.8%. New homes were down 2.2% and resales down 6.0%. Spain is down 2.3% over the same period and Andalucía down 0.6%.

Put plainly, 2025 was an exceptional year and 2026 is running a little below it on volume, while prices have kept rising. Fewer transactions at higher prices is what a market looks like when supply is short, and that is exactly what our quarterly work has been showing. The Málaga property market in Q2 2026 told the same story, with values firm and volumes easing from the 2025 peak.

For a seller, that combination is helpful. Buyers are fewer than at the very top of the cycle but they are serious, they are financed or paying cash, and there is less on the market for them to choose from. For a buyer it means good homes still move quickly and negotiation room is narrower than headlines about falling sales might suggest.

Where new build fits in the Málaga home sales figures

New homes made up 32.7% of Málaga home sales in August, a much higher share than the national 21.3%. That reflects the volume of building along the western Costa del Sol, where Estepona in particular has been delivering finished apartment schemes at pace. The figures from the Colegio de Arquitectos de Málaga, reported by El Español on 27 October, show the pipeline behind it.

In the third quarter of 2026 the province approved 2,879 new homes for construction, up 62.8% on the same quarter of 2025. Estepona was third in the province for approved apartments with 262, behind Mijas and Málaga city, and second for completed apartments with 272. Marbella led the province for finished houses, with 102 of the 250 completed in the quarter. Those numbers come from the press rather than from the Colegio directly, but they match what we see on the ground.

Protected housing remains a small part of the picture. The 83 VPO sales in August were 3.2% of Málaga home sales, and the same Colegio figures show 548 protected homes approved in the third quarter, 499 of them in Málaga city and 49 in Algarrobo, with none completed anywhere in the province. On the western coast the regulated schemes that do exist, such as the 199 homes Estepona has awarded on municipal land, will take years to reach the registries, so they will not change the private market in our three areas for some time.

More approvals now mean more completions in 2028 and 2029, which will feed straight into future Málaga home sales. Off plan buyers who reserve today are buying into that wave, and our guide to buying off plan sets out how stage payments, bank guarantees and delivery dates work. The Estepona guide covers where the new schemes sit and what each part of the town offers.

Marbella, Benahavís and Estepona inside the provincial count

The INE does not publish municipal figures in its monthly release, so the provincial total is the finest grain available from this source. Our three areas sit at the top of the price range rather than the top of the volume table. A single villa sale in La Zagaleta or on the Golden Mile can be worth as much as dozens of apartment sales elsewhere in the province, so the value of Málaga home sales is concentrated far more heavily in this corner than the unit count suggests.

That is why we track the three municipalities separately. The Marbella property market report, the Benahavís property market report and the Estepona property market report break the numbers down by area, price band and property type, using registry and notary data alongside our own records of listings and completed sales built up over years. That combination lets us place any individual home against what has genuinely sold nearby.

Our own data adds what the INE cannot. We hold sold prices, time on market and asking price reductions for developments and urbanisations across all three towns, and we can tell an owner within a narrow range what their home would achieve now. The valuation calculator gives a first figure in a few minutes, and we refine it in person from there.

Mortgages and cash behind the August rise

The INE released mortgage figures alongside the sales data, and lending rose in August as well. Cheaper money since the European Central Bank cut rates through 2025 has brought more domestic buyers back, particularly on the resale side, and our post on the Andalucía mortgage market covered how Euribor has moved through the year.

At the upper end of the market the picture is different. A large share of buyers in Marbella, Benahavís and Estepona pay cash or borrow outside Spain, so interest rates move their decisions far less than exchange rates, tax and lifestyle do. That is one reason Málaga home sales held up through the rate cycle better than the national figures, and why the top of the market here has stayed liquid.

Owners weighing a sale before the year ends

Autumn is traditionally the second busy season on the Costa del Sol, and the August figure suggests buyers have come back from the summer ready to commit. Owners thinking of selling in the next six months are coming to market with fewer competing listings than in 2024 or 2025, and with buyers who have watched prices rise and know that waiting has not paid. Our seller service starts with an honest valuation and a marketing plan built around who is actually buying in each area.

For buyers, the stock that matters is the stock that is correctly priced, and we can tell you which listings are. The full range of property for sale in Marbella sits on our site with live availability, and we will set any home you like against what comparable ones have actually sold for before you make an offer.

Questions people ask about Málaga home sales