Apartment or Villa on the Costa del Sol? Prices and Space Compared (2026)

01 ·Apartments and villas, town by town

Median asking price and typical size, September 2026. Istán has too few apartments for sale to compare.

02 ·Where a villa is the better buy per metre

In Estepona a villa asks 6% less per square metre than an apartment, and in Mijas 12% less. In Marbella a villa asks 5% more per m² than an apartment, and in Benahavís 24% more: in El Madroñal, a gated estate of large villas, the median home asks more than €8,000 per m².

03 ·The cheapest way into a villa

The median house or villa in Mijas asks €897,000 for 240 m², and in Estepona €995,000 for 226 m². For €157,000 more than the median apartment in Marbella (€740,000 for 127 m²) you get almost twice the space and your own outdoor area. The trade-off is location, so check how far each one is from the beach, shops and schools.

04 ·What changes beyond the price

An apartment suits buyers who will spend part of the year away. You can lock the door and leave, the development usually looks after the pool, gardens and security, and in places like Marbella town or Puerto Banús you can walk to the beach and restaurants. Apartments also make up most of the homes for sale (59% in these five municipalities), so the choice is wider.

A villa gives you privacy, a plot, often a private pool and room for family and guests. You will need a car in most areas, and a garden and pool need regular care when you are not there. Villas are a smaller share of the market and their prices spread much more: 65% of them ask €1 million or more, against 19% of apartments.

05 ·A middle way: townhouses and ground floors with gardens

Between the two there are townhouses and ground-floor apartments with private gardens, common in Nueva Andalucía, La Quinta and Los Arqueros. They give you outdoor space with the services of a development.

06 ·Questions buyers ask