GáireHomes
+353 87 440 5321Start your search

Areas · Marbella · district guide

Marbella East

The greener, quieter end of Marbella: pine woods, dunes and family villas between the hospital and Cabopino, three-quarters of an hour from the airport.

Right now in Marbella East: 23°, overcast, sunset 19:5918,796 people (INE, 2025) · on the beach · 9 min to the public hospital · 44 min to Málaga airport

Photo: Olaf Tausch, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Mediterranean SeaWESTEASTAGPSotograndeManilvaEsteponaMarbellaBenahavísN. AndalucíaMijasBenalmádenaTorremolinosMálagaNerjaAlh. de la TorreCártamaCoínAlh. el GrandeMarbella East
Marbella East on the real coastline, west to east. AGP is Málaga airport, and a dotted line marks an inland town's shortest distance to the sea.

Marbella East is everything in the municipality from the Río Real, just past the town, to the Mijas border at Cabopino. The A-7 runs the length of it. Below the road are the beach neighbourhoods: Bahía de Marbella and Los Monteros, then Las Chapas, El Rosario, Marbesa and the dunes at Artola, with the small fishing and leisure port of Cabopino at the far end. Above it the hills climb through Río Real golf, Altos de los Monteros, Santa Clara, Elviria and Hacienda Las Chapas towards Ojén. Elviria, with its shopping centre, is the nearest thing to a middle. The coast's public hospital, Hospital Costa del Sol, is at the western end.

It suits families and couples who want a house with a garden near a beach, an English-curriculum school ten minutes away and the airport in about 45 minutes, which is as close as Marbella gets. Most homes are villas and low-rise apartments among pine trees, and the beaches are long and sandy, with protected dunes at Artola. It suits less well anyone who wants to walk to restaurants and shops in an old town: Marbella's centre is 13 to 21 minutes' drive depending on which end you're at, and outside Elviria everyday life means the car or the coastal bus.

Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Olaf Tausch (CC BY 3.0), Konstantin (CC BY-SA 3.0), Vanbasten 23 (CC BY-SA 3.0), Tyk (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Property

What your money buys here.

The average asking price in Marbella East was €4,676 to €5,610 per m² in September 2026, −4.1% to +5.6% across its three zones on a year earlier (idealista price report). The examples below were opened and read on 2 October 2026. Stock moves weekly, so treat them as the shape of the market, not as houses to buy.

€

€800,000

A three-bed, three-bath detached villa of 251 m² on a 662 m² plot in the Reserva de Marbella area, on the hill behind Cabopino, with a private pool, garden, underfloor heating, solar panels and three parking spaces.

Opened and read. The listing calls it Las Chapas; the map pin is on the hill above the A-7. Energy rating G and no year given. Of 607 detached houses listed in the district on one big portal, only 45 were under €1m, and several of those were bungalows of 40 to 80 m².

€

€1,175,000

A five-bed, three-bath detached villa in a settled part of Elviria, 281 m² built on a 1,059 m² plot over two floors, with a 10 by 5 metre pool, mature gardens and a west-facing terrace looking to La Concha.

Opened and read. The text says 281 m² and the portal's data says 213: ask which, and ask for the deeds and the Catastro. No year built and no garage mentioned. Energy rating D.

€

€2,350,000

A four-bed, four-bath single-storey villa of 230 m² on about 1,500 m² in Elviria, south-facing, renovated in July 2024, with a private pool, a pergola, a solarium, underfloor heating and outdoor parking for two cars.

Opened and read. Energy rating B, which is rare at this level here. It has been on the portal since August 2024, which is worth knowing when you make an offer.

€

€3,900,000

A five-bed, five-bath villa of about 450 m² on a 1,004 m² plot in Los Monteros, in a gated estate with 24-hour security, on several levels with a basement of two extra rooms, a pool, a covered terrace and a barbecue area.

Opened and read. Six years old on one listing, though the text calls it classic in style with room to modernise; energy rating G. The same house was on the same portal through a second agency at the same price, one of the two for over sixteen months.

Add 10 to 13% on top of any price for taxes and fees. The cost calculator gives the real number for a given price.

Homes we can show you

Homes we can show you in Marbella East.

Resales and new builds from agencies and developers we work with, each one read, priced with its tax and with what we'd check before an offer. We arrange the viewing and sit on your side of it. See them all on Properties.

The house from the garden, with the poolResaleMarbella EastAn Andalusian villa with sea views5 bed · 4 bath · 450 m² built · 1,000 m² plot€1,650,000 + 7% ITP

The practical page

Where things actually are.

Every link below was opened and checked on 2 October 2026. Drive times from the Elviria shopping centre on Avenida Concha Nácar, measured on OpenStreetMap routing with 10% added for traffic. The airport times use the AP-7 toll road. From Los Monteros, at the western end, Marbella town is 13 minutes and Málaga airport 50; from Cabopino, at the eastern end, the airport is 42 minutes and Marbella town 21.

I.

Getting there and around

  • 1 min to Playa de Artola, Elviria (0.4 km), the beach is a few minutes' walk from the centre of Elviria
  • 7 min to The dunes and port at Cabopino (4.1 km)
  • 9 min to Hospital Costa del Sol (public, with A&E) (6.6 km)
  • 16 min to Marbella centre (Plaza de los Naranjos) (11.2 km, via A-7)
  • 21 min to Puerto Banús (21 km)
  • 22 min to Fuengirola (19 km, via A-7)
  • 44 min to Málaga airport (44 km, via AP-7 (toll))
  • 75 min to Gibraltar airport (85.3 km, via AP-7 (toll)), UK flights only, and a border to cross at La Línea.
II.

Everyday life

III.

Health

Residents register with the public system through the local health centre. How that works for Irish owners is in the healthcare guide.

IV.

Schools

V.

Sport and outdoors

Before you offer

What to check here.

  1. The new town plan. Marbella approved a new general plan (PGOM) in September 2026 to replace the 1986 plan it had been working under; the town hall called it recently approved on 29 September 2026. The detailed zoning plan that applies it street by street is still going through. About 18,000 existing homes in Marbella get a clearer route to regularisation under it, which is not the same as being legal. Ask your lawyer what the new plan says about the plot, and ask for the building licence, the first occupation licence and, for any extension, either a licence or an AFO certificate.
  2. What is being built next door. The new plan zones land at El Alicate, La Víbora and La Vizcaína, inland of Las Chapas, for more than 6,400 homes plus hotels, and gives the landowners two years to bring forward the detailed plans (reported on 22 September 2026). If you are buying a view or a quiet road up the hill in Las Chapas or El Rosario, look at the zoning map before you look at the kitchen.
  3. Community fees on the gated estates. Many villas sit in urbanisations with security, private roads and gardens. Two real examples from listings we read: a villa on a gated estate in Los Monteros paid €172 a month in community fees, €3,051 a year in IBI and €139 for rubbish; a 1977 villa in Hacienda Las Chapas paid €330 a month and €3,030 in IBI. Ask for the last receipts, two years of minutes and accounts, any special levy (derrama) already agreed, and the statutes.
  4. The sea and the dunes. The storms of early 2026 took at least five metres of beach at Artola-Cabopino between the dunes and the high-tide line, according to a report of 2 March 2026. For anything on the front line, have your lawyer check the coastal boundary (deslinde) and the protection strip that limits what can be built or extended near it. The dunes at Artola are a protected Natural Monument, which is good for the view and limits anything next to them.
  5. Fire and water. The hills above the A-7 are pine wood running up to Ojén. In the fire of August 2012, eight urbanisations in Marbella were evacuated, along with the area around Ojén. Ask about clearance around any plot that backs onto trees. Streams cross the district on their way to the sea, and the Río Real runs through its western end: check the flood maps for anything near them.
  6. Which side of the road, and how near it. The A-7 runs the length of the district and the AP-7 toll road runs above it. Beachside homes can walk to the sand; hillside homes get views and quiet but drive for everything. Houses near either road should be visited at rush hour. And listings use the district's place names loosely: "Las Chapas" or "Elviria" on a listing can mean a pin anywhere from the hospital to Cabopino, and idealista's sub-areas run from €3,286 a square metre in Reserva de Marbella to €8,667 in Los Monteros. Check the pin.
  7. Holiday letting. Since 3 April 2025, a new tourist let in a building or a community needs the express approval of three-fifths of the owners, and community statutes can already ban it. We found no Marbella-wide freeze on new tourist-let registrations as of 2 October 2026, but rules are tightening across Málaga province, so if letting matters, ask the council and read the statutes before you sign.

None of this replaces your own lawyer, and the lawyer guide says what to expect of one.

What we'd tell you on the phone

The parts that aren't in the brochure.

This is the part of Marbella for people who want the beach and a garden more than the town. It has the hospital, three schools within ten minutes of Elviria and the shortest run to the airport of anywhere in the municipality. What it doesn't have is a centre you can walk around in the evening: Elviria's shopping centre and the port at Cabopino are as close as it gets, and the old town is a drive away.

The market is villas first. On 2 October 2026 one big portal listed 1,860 homes for sale across the district's three zones, 607 of them detached houses: 45 under €1m, 154 between €1m and €2m, 123 between €2m and €3m, and 282 above €3m. Those are listings, not houses: we found the same Los Monteros villa listed twice at €3.9m by two agencies, and the cheapest "villa 100 metres from the beach" in Marbesa, at €1.35m, was a plot with a licence and a project, not a house. Below €1m, think apartment or townhouse, or a villa up the hill.

The averages hide a lot. Idealista put Elviria-Cabopino at €4,676 a square metre in September 2026, Las Chapas-El Rosario at €5,446 and Río Real-Los Monteros at €5,610, against €5,967 for Marbella as a whole. Inside those, Los Monteros was €8,667 and down 12.6% on a year, while Hacienda Las Chapas was €5,798 and up 13.3%. These are asking prices and they mix apartments with villas. Value a house against what has actually sold on its own estate.

Many of the better villas sit on the market a long time. The Elviria villa above has been listed since August 2024, and one of the two Los Monteros listings for over sixteen months. That's room to negotiate, and a reminder that when you sell you'll be one of several hundred villas too. Buy the one that will be easiest to sell.

Without a car it works only along the A-7. The M-220 bus runs about every half hour by day and stops at most beachside neighbourhoods; the hill estates are a long walk from any stop. If you're thinking of retiring here and giving up driving one day, the beachside streets of Elviria and Las Chapas, near the bus and the shops, are the place to look.

Next door

The rest of the coast around Marbella, district by district.

Marbella East is part of Marbella. If it is close but not quite right, one of these usually is.

Marbella

Four towns wearing one name, and the one you buy in decides almost everything about the life.

~€5,967/m²Town guide →
The Golden Mile

The strip between Marbella and Puerto Banús with the beach hotels, the dearest square metres on the coast, and Sierra Blanca's villas in the hills behind.

~€8,331/m²District guide →
Puerto Banús

The marina, the white blocks around it and the beaches either side: Marbella's busiest few hundred metres, and a market of flats rather than houses.

~€7,492/m²District guide →
San Pedro Alcántara

The working town at the western end of Marbella: a market, a boulevard over the motorway, a long flat beach, and the most affordable square metres in the municipality.

~€4,649/m²District guide →
The New Golden Mile

Ten kilometres of beach, golf and new building between Guadalmina and Estepona town, sold under a name the agents gave it.

~€4,314/m²District guide →
Guadalmina

Marbella's oldest golf estate: low-rise villas on proper plots, between the Guadalmina river and San Pedro, with the beach at the bottom of the road.

~€5,158/m² (Guadalmina Baja)District guide →
La Cala de Mijas

The one real village on the Mijas coast: a square, a seafront watchtower and a Blue Flag beach, with golf valleys and villa hills behind it.

~€4,613/m²District guide →

Read next

Start your search

Thinking about Marbella East?

We've set the search to Marbella East. Tell us your budget and what you want, and we'll tell you honestly whether it fits, and what else to look at.

Rather talk first? Call +353 87 440 5321 or message us on WhatsApp.