These Q1 2025 market insights confirm Marbella and the wider Costa del Sol set a strong tone for the year. Marbella, Estepona, and Benahavís, often referred to as the “Golden Triangle”, recorded a 24.7% increase in property sales year-on-year, reaching 2,339 transactions.
Sales by Area
Estepona led the surge with sales up 59%, fuelled by a wave of new developments and growing international demand. Marbella maintained steady growth (+7.8%), with prices exceeding €3,250/m² as supply remained tight. Benahavís also posted healthy gains (+17%), driven by resales in its exclusive villa communities. Benahavís in particular continues to trade heavily on resale stock rather than new construction, reflecting how much of its most desirable inventory sits within long established, low turnover villa developments.
Estepona’s 59% jump stands out as by far the strongest of the three, reflecting how much of the Golden Triangle’s current growth is being driven by new supply coming to market there, rather than by Marbella or Benahavís alone. That mix matters for buyers deciding where to focus a search, since Estepona’s growth is largely tied to new build stock while Marbella’s more modest but steady increase reflects a market with far less available supply to begin with.
Prices and Foreign Buyer Share
Prices across the Golden Triangle now average €4,260/m², a 12.1% rise compared to Q1 2024, underscoring the area’s premium position above Málaga province (€2,869/m²) and Andalusia (€1,857/m²). Foreign buyers continue to play a central role, accounting for a record 34.8% of all purchases in Málaga province.
At roughly 1.5 times the average price per square metre for Málaga province as a whole, the Golden Triangle’s premium is widening rather than narrowing, which points to demand concentrating even further in this specific stretch of coastline rather than spreading more evenly across the province. A record 34.8% foreign buyer share also suggests that price growth here is being driven less by local wage growth and more by international capital, a dynamic that tends to make the Golden Triangle less sensitive to domestic economic conditions than the wider Spanish market.
What This Means for the Market
For investors and homeowners, these figures highlight both the strength and resilience of the local market. A market growing on volume, price, and foreign demand simultaneously, as the Golden Triangle did in Q1 2025, is generally a more durable signal than a single strong quarter driven by one large transaction or a handful of headline sales.
A year on, the picture has continued to develop further. We tracked how these Q1 2025 trends carried through into the following year in our Marbella Property Market Report for Q1 2026, which gives buyers and investors a clearer sense of whether this pace of growth has been sustained or whether the market has since moved into a more measured phase.
👉 Download our full Q1 2025 Market Report to explore detailed insights, charts, and analysis for Marbella, Estepona, and Benahavís, and discover why the Golden Triangle remains one of Europe’s most dynamic real estate destinations.
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This edition also covers Estepona and Benahavis, which behave very differently to Marbella. Read the Estepona analysis and the Benahavis analysis for those municipalities.
