Marbella is a pretty special place. It is ‘smart’ like few other places. The impeccably dressed Spanish policemen ride not just motorbikes but serious Harley-Davidson machines, whilst their colleagues sit perfectly on their beautiful Andalusian horses.

It’s not just the police who have style here. Everyone and everything in Marbella caters for the very rich and famous, as well as we ordinary mortals. Houses, shops and streets are kept in beautiful condition and the jewellery shops contain exquisite pieces seen usually only in the very top jewellers in major capital cities worldwide.

One major reason, often forgotten, for Marbella’s popularity is its geographical location enjoying its own ‘microclimate’. This means that it actually has a different climate from places only a few miles away. Despite being on the East coast of southern Spain, Marbella actually faces South. This means that the midday sun shines directly onto the beaches, whilst allowing the fabulous Mediterranean sunrises and sunsets to be visible. The land rises from the beaches towards the mountains just behind the town, preventing any cold inland winds, and meaning that many Marbella properties
have wonderful views.

Marbella receives less rainfall than surrounding towns and villages, depending upon location, and can be 5 to7 degrees warmer in winter. You can stand in the rain in winter in Malaga, only 20 odd miles away and see sunshine over Marbella…….but not the rest of the coast.

The surprising thing is that amongst the wealth, style, sunshine and fabulous beaches it is very possible to buy property in Marbella
at all, let alone have a large choice of properties for rent or sale. Not surprisingly prices vary enormously, depending upon what you want. You can still buy a Spanish townhouse in ‘Old Town’ to live amongst the cobbled streets and passageways, full of cafes and local restaurants, with a very short stroll to the beach, or find apartments to suite all tastes overlooking the Mediterranean.

Further along the coast in either direction are villas and properties for the rich or the not-so-rich, most with pools and some with extraordinary architecture. Inland the property prices are a lot cheaper the further you go, mainly due to the different climate and the proximity to the Marbella microclimate, which only reaches a couple of kilometres inland before the elevation of the mountains takes over.

Serious construction is underway all along the Costa del Sol (sunshine coast) both on the Mediterranean coast itself but also inland from the A7, which is the only major road serving the whole Costa, running from Malaga in the north to Gibraltar in the south. Effectively this cuts off the coastal area (including Marbella) from the inland regions, the mountains following the coast 5 or so kilometres inland from the sea. However, as you can imagine this is a very busy road, and despite continual widening has to take very large amounts of traffic.