Area guide · The golf estate above Los Monteros
Santa Clara
A golf estate built this century on the slope above Los Monteros, seven minutes east of Marbella, with the sea in front, the course through the middle and the public hospital at its corner.
in Santa Clara today
for a villa here
in the cadastral record
by Enrique Canales Busquets
The place
A golf estate of this century, on the slope above the beach
Santa Clara is the golf estate on the landward side of the coast road about seven minutes east of Marbella, laid out around the eighteen holes of Santa Clara Golf Marbella. It sits directly above Los Monteros and Bahía de Marbella, with the A-7 between them, the Río Real course to its west and El Rosario to its east.
Everything around it is older, and that is the first thing to understand about the address. The hotel below opened in 1962 and the course next door in 1965, while the Catastro has nothing built at Santa Clara until 2001. What you are looking at is a neighbourhood of this century, low built, laid out around one golf course, on a gentle slope that faces the sea.
This guide sets out how the ground came to be built on, what the street register says about it, what living here is actually like, and what the numbers say, from what is being asked today to what buyers have actually paid.
Santa Clara from the air, the homes set along the fairways on the slope
Where exactly it is
Above Los Monteros, between Río Real and El Rosario
The slope read west to east, from the Río Real course to El Rosario, a little under four kilometres. Santa Clara sits past the middle of it on the landward side of the A-7, with the hospital at its south west corner and Bahía de Marbella and Los Monteros directly below it on the sand.
- 1Santa ClaraThe estate and its eighteen holes, on the slope above the coast road
- 2Hospital Costa del SolThe public hospital, at the south west corner of the estate
- 3Río RealThe 1965 Javier Arana course and its valley, immediately west
- 4Bahía de MarbellaThe beachside pocket below, across the A-7
- 5Los MonterosThe beach estate below, hotel, tennis and beach club
- 6El RosarioThe next address east, on the same side of the road
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.
Before the fairways
An open slope above the coast road, then fairways, then streets
The same frame of hillside was flown twice, seventy years apart, and in 1956 it is open ground and field boundaries with a stream running down to the coast road, and the bridge that still carries the road over it. The course, the streets and nearly every roof in the second frame belong to this century.
Nothing was added to these frames and nothing was moved. The only thing that changes is how much of the slope 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
A stream with seven bends, and the last slope to be built
Before it was a golf estate this slope was known for its stream. The Arroyo de Siete Revueltas, the stream of seven bends, comes down off the hills behind, crosses what is now the course and meets the coast road at the foot of the estate. The Catastro still registers the golf course against it, and the rural land around it keeps the name Siete Revueltas on the register to this day.
Where the stream meets the road there is a bridge that almost nobody driving over it has noticed. In the 1860s the engineer Pablo Alzola designed five bridges to one pattern for the watercourses along this coast, and the Siete Revueltas was one of them, a single basket handle arch with a span of fifteen metres. The heritage inventory of the old N-340 notes that the surviving drawings show brick and the builders used stone. It is still carrying traffic, widened with concrete beams and hidden beneath the A-7, at the foot of the estate.
The neighbours were all built before anything happened here, and the dates show it. The hotel Los Monteros opened on the beach side of the road in 1962, the Río Real course followed in 1965 and Bahía de Marbella filled the sand between them from 1982. The slope above the road stayed open through all of it, which is why a course could still be drawn across it at the end of the century.
The club dates its course to 2000, eighteen holes by Enrique Canales Busquets, and the Catastro dates the first building in the urbanisation to 2001. The middle year of everything standing here is 2004 and the most recent is 2023, across 268 parcels and 515 homes. On a stretch of coast where the well known addresses are sixties work, Santa Clara is the one that was planned, serviced and built within a single generation.
A house at Santa Clara, where the cadastral record dates the first building in the urbanisation to 2001 and the middle year of all of it to 2004
The earliest building in the urbanisation on the cadastral record, forty years after the hotel below.
The 1860s road bridge over the Siete Revueltas, still in service under the A-7.
Living here
Seven minutes from the town, with the course at the end of the street
Hospital Universitario Costa del Sol stands on Avenida Modesto Abril at the south west corner of the estate, which makes it part of the neighbourhood in a way no other Marbella golf address can claim. On 3 March 2026 the regional government opened its long awaited extension, an investment of more than 100 million euros that added close to 40,000 square metres in two new buildings. It brought sixteen operating theatres, outpatient clinics, day hospitals and a radiotherapy and nuclear medicine unit, treatment for which patients on this coast had been travelling sixty kilometres to Málaga. Private hospitals are a short drive west in Marbella itself.
Families at Santa Clara tend to look east for schooling, away from the town traffic. English International College, founded in 1982 and teaching the British curriculum from three to eighteen, is at Ricmar on the coast road a few minutes away. The international schools on the Golden Mile hillside are about fifteen minutes in the other direction, so there is a second choice without a long run.
The A-7 runs along the foot of the estate and Avenida Santa Clara Golf joins it there, so the main road is a very short drive from any gate on the estate. The club gives its own times as seven minutes to the centre of Marbella, five to the beach and thirty to Málaga airport. Elviria is about ten minutes east, Puerto Banús about twenty west, and the AP-7 toll motorway passes just behind the estate for longer runs. There is no train to Marbella, so a car is part of life here.
Santa Clara Golf Marbella is eighteen holes, par 71, over 5,922 metres, laid out by Enrique Canales Busquets on what the club describes as a gentle slope with few inclines. It is open 365 days a year and can be played on foot as well as by buggy. The practice ground has a natural grass range of 250 metres, covered bays, putting greens and practice bunkers, and it is open to non members every day. The club describes the views from the course as taking in the Mediterranean, the mountains, Gibraltar and the coast of Morocco.
A pool terrace at Santa Clara looking over the trees of the course to the sea
Schools
English International College at Ricmar, British curriculum from 3 to 18, founded 1982, a few minutes east; the Golden Mile schools about fifteen minutes west.
Healthcare
Hospital Universitario Costa del Sol at the south west corner of the estate, extended in March 2026 with sixteen operating theatres and a radiotherapy unit.
Getting about
The A-7 runs along the foot of the estate, seven minutes to the centre of Marbella, five to the beach and thirty to Málaga airport. A car is part of life.
The golf
Eighteen holes, par 71, over 5,922 metres, by Enrique Canales Busquets, open every day of the year and walkable, with a grass range open to non members.
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, and 29603 covers Santa Clara together with Río Real, Los Monteros and Bahía de Marbella, three older addresses with a good deal of beachfront between them. The asking prices are Santa Clara’s own.
Asking prices, per square metre
The bar is the middle half of what is being asked for each type in Santa Clara 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 Santa Clara, 51 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 29603 covers Santa Clara together with Río Real, Los Monteros and Bahía de Marbella. So the deed figure below is for the whole district rather than for Santa Clara alone. Across it, homes completed this year at a typical €4,726 per square metre, 1 per cent above Marbella as a whole. Houses went for €4,910 over an average 220 square metres, against €4,924 for a house in Marbella as a whole.
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. The full postcode picture, by property type, is on the Los Monteros page.
- Postcode 29603, all homes€4,726405 deeds
- Postcode 29603, apartments€4,653328 deeds
- Postcode 29603, houses€4,91077 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, rolling 12 months, captured 15 August 2026. Postcode 29603 covers Santa Clara together with Río Real, Los Monteros and Bahía de Marbella. 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 Santa Clara
37% of the stock
35% of the stock
14% 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 Santa Clara 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 to market follows the way the estate was planned. Houses and apartments are listed in almost equal numbers, with townhouses, duplexes and a few penthouses behind them, because Santa Clara was laid out as a set of separate communities around the fairways, some of detached villas and some of low blocks. About nine in ten of the buildings the Catastro records here stand two storeys above ground, so even the apartments sit low on the slope. On today’s listings the apartments ask more per square metre than the houses do, which is the reverse of the older estates on either side. Building plots are absent from the listings altogether.
- Houses and villas1937% of listings
- Apartments1835% of listings
- Townhouses714% of listings
- Penthouses36% of listings
Resale stock listed in Santa Clara 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
Santa Clara compared to nearby areas
The same stretch of coast, either side of the road
Santa Clara, Río Real, Los Monteros and Bahía de Marbella share the deed postcode 29603 and the same short run of the A-7, and El Rosario is the next address east in 29604. A buyer who views one of them usually ends up viewing them all, and the asking prices separate them more clearly than the map does.
| Address | Typical asking, per m² | Listed | Running costs, per year | Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Clara | €6,148 | 19 houses and villas | too few to say | The golf estate of this century, on the slope above the road |
| Río Real | €5,287 | 43 houses and villas | €4,704 | The 1965 course, the river valley and the houses on the fairways |
| Los Monteros | €4,447 | 60 apartments | €4,406 | Beach estate with a hotel, tennis and a beach club built in |
| Bahía de Marbella | €7,929 | 19 houses and villas | too few to say | A small beachside pocket on the sand, built from 1982 |
| El Rosario | €5,795 | 114 houses and villas | €3,256 | Mostly villas on their own plots, the next address east |
Typical is the median asking price per built square metre for the type of home most listed in each area, named beside the count (houses and villas, or apartments), as at 8 August 2026; running costs are the median annual IBI plus community charge where enough listings publish them. From our own records.
Santa Clara is the youngest address in this group and the only one planned in a single piece, so the homes are modern, the streets are consistent and the course is at the centre instead of along one edge. Río Real gives you an older course with a river through it, and Los Monteros and Bahía de Marbella give you the sand. Which of those matters most depends on how you plan to use the home, and that is a conversation rather than a table.
Wider context: our guide to Marbella, area by area, and our property market data behind every figure on this page.
Who buys here
Three buyers, and what Santa Clara gives each of them
The golf home.
Some golf addresses are a house with a course somewhere nearby, and this is the other kind, where the club is at the end of your own street. The course is open every day of the year, it can be walked, and the practice ground takes non members, so a home here gets used for golf in January as readily as in May.
The year-round home.
The public hospital for the western Costa del Sol stands at the south west corner of the estate, enlarged in 2026 with sixteen operating theatres and a radiotherapy unit. Marbella is seven minutes west and a British school a few minutes east. For anyone planning to live here through the winter, or to retire here, that combination is hard to match on this side of the town.
The buyer who wants a modern house.
Nothing at Santa Clara is older than 2001 and half of it dates from 2004 or later, so the layouts and the construction belong to this century. Buyers who have viewed sixties villas on the beach side of the road and costed the work often cross it and find the house they were about to build.
Common questions
Questions we are asked about Santa Clara
Where exactly is Santa Clara in Marbella?
It is the golf estate on the landward side of the A-7 about seven minutes east of Marbella town, directly above Los Monteros and Bahía de Marbella. The Río Real course is to its west, El Rosario to its east and Hospital Costa del Sol at its south west corner. The postcode is 29603.
Who designed Santa Clara Golf Marbella?
The course was designed by Enrique Canales Busquets and the club dates it to 2000. It is eighteen holes, par 71, over 5,922 metres, on a gentle slope facing the sea. It is open every day of the year and can be played on foot or by buggy.
What type of property for sale in Santa Clara is most common?
Houses and apartments are almost level, which reflects an estate built as separate communities of villas and low blocks. Of the 51 resale properties currently listed here, 19 are houses and 18 are apartments, with 7 townhouses and 3 penthouses alongside them.
How old are the homes in Santa Clara?
All of them were built this century, and the cadastral record is precise about it. The first building in the urbanisation dates from 2001, the middle year is 2004 and the most recent is 2023, across 268 parcels and 515 homes. The estates on the beach side of the road below date from the sixties and the eighties.
How close is Santa Clara to the hospital?
Hospital Universitario Costa del Sol, the public hospital for the western Costa del Sol, stands at the south west corner of the estate. Its extension opened on 3 March 2026 after an investment of more than 100 million euros, adding sixteen operating theatres, outpatient clinics and a radiotherapy and nuclear medicine unit.
How far is Santa Clara from the beach and from Málaga airport?
The golf club gives five minutes to the beach, seven to the centre of Marbella and thirty to Málaga airport, all by car. The sand below is the protected dune beach of Los Monteros and Bahía de Marbella, on the other side of the A-7. There is no train to Marbella, so plan on driving.
For sale now
Current property for sale in Santa Clara
A selection of what is for sale in Santa Clara right now. Every home we are listing here, with asking prices, is on the page for property for sale in Santa Clara.
4 bedroom town house for sale in Santa Clara, Marbella Este
- 4 beds
- 3 baths
- Interior: 227 m²
4 bedroom ground floor apartment for sale in Santa Clara, Marbella
- 4 beds
- 5 baths
- Interior: 203 m²
2 bedroom penthouse for sale in Santa Clara, Marbella Este
- 2 beds
- 2 baths
- Interior: 123.02 m²
3 bedroom duplex for sale in Santa Clara, Marbella Este
- 3 beds
- 3 baths
4 bedroom semi detached house for sale in Santa Clara, Marbella Este
- 4 beds
- 4 baths
- Plot: 304 m²
4 bedroom semi detached house for sale in Santa Clara, Marbella Este
- 4 beds
- 4 baths
- Plot: 122 m²
Free download
The Marbella Buyers Guide
Everything a buyer needs before the first viewing in Santa Clara 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 our property market data.
Talk to us
Tell us how you want to live at Santa Clara
A villa on Calle Birdie with the course below it, a townhouse in the middle of the estate and an apartment beside the fairways are three different lives. 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.
We have 25 years of experience in this market.
