Area guide · The beachside grid below El Rosario
Property for Sale in Costabella
A small, dense grid of low houses on the sand below El Rosario, with Berlin, Bremen, Munich and the Black Forest still on the street signs.
in Costabella today
for a villa here
156 m² of floor area each
went into the municipal file
The place
A small grid on the sand, below the road and below El Rosario
Costabella is a compact beachside estate on the eastern side of Marbella, on the seaward side of the old coast road and below El Rosario. It sits in the stretch the municipal record describes as running from the seven bends of the Alicate to the arroyo Real de Zaragoza, which puts the Las Chapas urbanisation immediately west of it and the Real de Zaragoza dune immediately east.
It is small and it is tight. The cadastral register counts 311 parcels and 446 homes across 69,709 square metres of floor area, which is about 156 square metres a home. El Rosario, on the slope directly above it, averages about 439 on the same register. Nothing here is tall. It is a low grid, close to the sand, laid out for people who wanted to walk to it.
This guide sets out how it came to be, what the street register says about it, what living here is actually like, and what the numbers say, both what is being asked on the estate today and what has actually been paid across the district around it.
We are not selling you a postcode. We are here to help you buy the right house on it, with the legal and urbanistic homework done before you sign.
The grid from above, packed tight between the old coast road and the sand. Costabella sits on the seaward side of that road, one of only five estates the 1974 municipal survey counted between the road and the beach on this stretch.
Where exactly it is
Between the seven bends and the sand
The eastern side of Marbella read west to east, along the coast rather than out to sea. Costabella sits on the beach side of the old road with El Rosario directly above it, the Las Chapas urbanisation along the sand to the west, and Elviria on the rising ground to the east.
- 1CostabellaThe estate itself, between the coast road and the beach
- 2El RosarioDirectly above it, on the inland side of the old road
- 3Las ChapasWest along the sand, between here and Los Monteros
- 4ElviriaInland and east, larger, greener and higher
- 5Los MonterosFurther west along the coast, the older beach estate
- 6Bahía de MarbellaWest again, towards Río Real
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 thin line of ground between the old road and the sand
The same frame of coast, flown twice, seventy years apart. In 1956 it is field boundaries and the dune line behind the beach. The grid appears in the sixties and fills through the seventies.
Nothing was added to these frames and nothing was moved. The only thing that changes is how much of the ground is spoken for. Historic and current imagery © Instituto Geográfico Nacional de España, both rendered through one frame at one scale.
How it came to be
Drawn in the sixties for people arriving from the north
Costabella appears in the municipal record early. A plan for it was already in the pipeline in 1964 as expediente 183/64, and a plan parcial de ordenación was filed as expediente 189/66 two years later. The general plan files this ground in the Área de El Alicate, one of the seven areas Marbella divides itself into, and the estate has sat inside that boundary ever since.
What it was drawn for is written on the street signs and has never been taken down. The official register carries Berlín, Bremen, Frankfurt and Múnich, and then Baviera, Selva Negra, Escandinavia, Holanda and Amberes: three German cities, a German region, the Black Forest, Scandinavia, Holland and Antwerp. Set against them are Madrid, Sevilla, Granada, Andalucía and Cervantes. An estate does not name half its streets after northern Europe by accident.
The scale followed from the same idea. These were not villas for people living here all year, they were small houses close together for people coming south for a season, and the register still shows it: 446 homes on 311 parcels with an average of about 156 square metres of floor area, against about 439 in El Rosario on the slope above. Among the estates of individual houses on this coast nothing else comes close to that, and the tightness is the reason it works. You are always a short walk from the sea and never a long one from a neighbour.
In 1974 the ayuntamiento’s own survey of the coast listed Costabella as one of just five urbanisations between the road and the beach on this stretch, alongside Las Chapas de Marbella, Barronal de la Morena, Vistamar and Pinomar. Eight more were counted above the road, El Rosario among them. That division, a thin line of estates on the sand and a much wider spread on the ground behind, is still exactly how this part of Marbella reads today.
A house on the beach edge of the grid, glass and white render on the seaward side. Behind it the estate is lower and smaller, at a register average of about 156 square metres a home.
The plan parcial went through the municipal office as expediente 189/66, two years after the first file was opened.
On 311 parcels, at about 156 m² a home, against about 439 in El Rosario on the slope above.
Living here
Built for February as well as August
The estate is small enough to know in a week. It is flat, it is laid out between the old coast road and the sand, and everything inside it is a walk. That sounds like a small thing until you have spent a winter somewhere on this coast where every errand is a drive down a hill and back up it. Costabella is the opposite of that, and it is the main reason people who buy here tend to stay.
Schools mean going inland. The international schools of Marbella east sit on the ground behind the coast road, a few minutes north east around Elviria, and the ones on the Golden Mile hillside are around twenty five minutes west, which gives a family a genuine choice. The morning run here is out of the coastal traffic rather than into it.
Healthcare means going west. Hospital Costa del Sol, the public hospital for the whole western Costa del Sol, is on the A-7 about ten minutes away, and the private hospitals and clinics are grouped around Marbella town beyond it. Málaga airport is about half an hour east. There is no train to Marbella, so a car, or a driver, is part of life here.
The beach is the point of the address. This is the last part of the Marbella coast where the old dune systems survive in any form. The cordon was built by north westerly winds and longshore drift and once ran unbroken west to the mouth of the Río Real, and the Real de Zaragoza dune, on the sand a short way east of here, holds twelve of the twenty hectares in the Reserva Ecológica Dunas de Marbella. Walk east along the sand and the character of the coast changes under your feet.
The beach in front of Costabella, from the sand below the houses. Along the coast east of here the dune systems begin, and the protected part of them starts within a walk.
Schools
The international schools of Marbella east are a few minutes inland, north east around Elviria; the Golden Mile schools are about twenty five minutes west.
Healthcare
Hospital Costa del Sol on the A-7 about ten minutes west, the public hospital for nine municipalities, with the private clinics around Marbella town.
Getting about
Ten to fifteen minutes to Marbella town, about half an hour to Málaga airport. There is no train, so a car is part of life.
The beach
At the end of Calle Playa Hermosa, on the last stretch of Marbella’s old dune coast, with the protected dune immediately east.
What things cost
What is asked, and what was paid
Two numbers both get called “the price” here, and setting them side by side without saying which is which is how a guide contradicts itself. So they are kept apart. Registered sale prices are only published by postcode district, and the district that carries this address reaches a long way beyond this grid, across the estates strung along the coast east of Marbella. That is a far wider and far more mixed area than 446 homes on one flat piece of ground, so read the deed figure as the district it is. The asking prices are Costabella’s own.
Asking prices, per square metre
The bar is the middle half of what is being asked for each type in Costabella 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.
Asking prices per built square metre, resale stock listed in Costabella, 53 properties in total, as at 8 August 2026. From our own records.
What buyers actually paid
Registered sale prices are only published by postcode, and postcode 29604 covers Costabella together with Elviria, Las Chapas, Hacienda Las Chapas, El Rosario, Marbesa, Cabopino and Artola. So the deed figure below is for the whole district rather than for Costabella alone. Across it, homes completed this year at a typical €3,970 per square metre, 15 per cent below Marbella as a whole. Houses went for €4,213 over an average 266 square metres, against €4,924 for a Marbella 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 29604, all homes€3,970546 deeds
- Postcode 29604, apartments€3,745389 deeds
- Postcode 29604, houses€4,213157 deeds
- Marbella, all homes€4,6654,037 deeds
- Marbella, houses€4,924776 deeds
JUST Real Estate analysis of registered deed prices, Portal Estadístico del Notariado, year to date, captured 15 August 2026. Postcode 29604 covers Costabella together with Elviria, Las Chapas, Hacienda Las Chapas, El Rosario, Marbesa, Cabopino and Artola. 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
for sale in Costabella
68% of the stock
17% of the stock
6% 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 Costabella and where the same home is being advertised more than once. This covers resale stock only, not new construction sold directly by developers.
What comes to market here follows the shape of the register almost exactly. This is a grid of small houses, 446 homes across 311 parcels, and that is what appears: houses in quantity, apartments in smaller numbers, a handful of townhouses and penthouses, and effectively no land, because the estate was drawn in the sixties and there is nothing inside it left to draw.
One thing to read carefully. The asking figure beside this is a price per built square metre, and on a grid of small houses on beachside plots that measure runs high, because most of what you are paying for is the ground and the position rather than the building standing on it. The width of the bar is the honest signal here: the typical figure is a starting point for a conversation about a specific street, not a going rate for the estate.
- Houses and villas3668% of listings
- Apartments917% of listings
- Townhouses36% of listings
- Penthouses36% of listings
- Plots24% of listings
Resale stock listed in Costabella 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
Costabella compared to nearby areas
The Marbella east ladder, in order
Five addresses share this stretch of coast and they do not trade level. Costabella is the small, dense, beachside one, and the table is worth reading with that in mind, because a price per square metre rewards large houses and punishes small ones. The address with the smallest homes on the tightest plots comes out at the top of that column rather than the bottom.
| Address | Typical asking, per m² | Listed | Running costs, per year | Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costabella | €12,093 | 36 | too few to say | Small beachside grid, low houses, a walk to the sand |
| Río Real | €5,287 | 43 | €4,704 | The 1965 course and the houses around its fairways |
| Bahía de Marbella | €7,929 | 19 | too few to say | A small beachside pocket further west |
| Los Monteros | €8,609 | 49 | €4,406 | The 1962 resort estate, golf, tennis and a beach club |
| Elviria | €5,306 | 167 | €3,544 | Inland and east, larger, greener and more mixed |
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.
What that column really measures at this end of the coast is how much building sits on each piece of ground. Costabella has the least of it, so its rate per square metre reads highest while its houses are the smallest in the group. Which of these is right for you depends on whether you want the house or the position, because here you are usually choosing between them, 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 Costabella gives each of them
The lock up and leave.
This is what Costabella was drawn for and it still does it better than most. Small houses, close together, a short walk from the sand, on an estate where somebody is always around. For an owner who is here for parts of the year rather than all of it, the density is a feature rather than a compromise.
The first coastal house.
The register’s average of about 156 square metres a home tells you plainly what this address is: a modest house in a beachside position rather than a large one set back from it. If walking to the sand matters more to you than the number of rooms, that is the trade Costabella makes, and it is the whole reason the estate exists.
The rebuild.
Most of what stands here dates from the sixties and seventies and the register shows work still being recorded up to 2017. On a tight grid the rules on what can replace what matter a great deal, so check the consent position before you commit, and we will.
Common questions
Questions we are asked about property for sale in Costabella
Is Costabella a gated community?
Costabella is an estate of individual houses on named public streets rather than one gated development, and the cadastral register records a small number of shared-access communities inside it. Arrangements differ street by street, so ask us about a specific address before you decide.
How far is Costabella from Marbella town?
About ten to fifteen minutes west along the A-7, with Málaga airport around half an hour east. There is no train to Marbella, so plan on driving.
What type of property for sale in Costabella is most common?
Houses and townhouses. The cadastral register counts 446 homes across 311 parcels here at about 156 square metres of floor area each, and of the 53 resale properties currently listed, 36 are houses, 9 are apartments and 3 are townhouses, with only 2 plots of land.
Can you walk to the beach from Costabella?
Yes, from anywhere in it. The estate is flat and sits between the old coast road and the sand, and Calle Playa Hermosa is named for exactly that reason.
What does it cost to run a home in Costabella?
Too few Costabella listings publish their running costs for us to give a median for the estate itself, and we would rather say that than print a figure we cannot stand behind. For the shape of it, El Rosario directly above runs at €3,256 a year in annual property tax plus community charge and Elviria at €3,544, both from our own records. On a grid of small plots both parts tend to be modest. Ask us before you make an offer and we will get the actual figures for the specific house.
Why are the streets named after German cities?
Because the estate was drawn in the mid sixties for buyers arriving from northern Europe, and the names went straight onto the official Spanish register and have stayed there: Berlín, Bremen, Múnich, Frankfurt, Baviera, Selva Negra, Escandinavia, Holanda and Amberes, set among Madrid, Sevilla, Granada, Andalucía and Cervantes.
For sale now
Current property for sale in Costabella
What is for sale in Costabella 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.
Spectacular South-East Facing Beachfront Villa with Direct Sea Access in Costabella, Marbella
- 6 beds
- 4 baths
- Plot: 749 m²
- Interior: 360 m²
Frontline Beach Villa in Costabella, Marbella
- 6 beds
- 4 baths
- Plot: 749 m²
Free download
The Marbella Buyers Guide
Everything a buyer needs before the first viewing in Costabella 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.
Talk to us
Tell us how you want to live on this stretch of coast
Costabella, El Rosario above it and Las Chapas along the sand suit very different people, and the difference is not only price. Tell us what the days should look like, and we will send you the streets that deliver it, with the honest drawbacks of each and the running costs in front of you before you view.
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.
