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Cristina Vallejo
Malaga
Wednesday, 7 May 2025
Contracts up for tender in Malaga province for public works reached 186.64 million euros by end of March. This is the best figure recorded for a first quarter since at least 2019.
This is according to data published by Seopan, the association of construction companies and infrastructure concessionaires. This represents an increase of 215%, meaning over three times the figures recorded between January and March 2024, when the volume of public works tenders did not reach 60 million euros. That low figure raised alarm bells even with the Malaga association of economists, which then highlighted both the lack of infrastructure in the province and the scarce public investment. Yet 2025 seems to be witnessing some drastic changes for Malaga because the province has registered the fifth highest year-on-year increase in public investment made by the three main governing bodies at state, regional and local levels, only behind those undertaken in Cáceres, Soria, Cuenca and Cadiz.
During the first quarter of this year, Malaga catapulted to tenth place in the ranking of provinces by volume of public works tenders, up from 24th place in the first quarter of 2024. Moreover, it has now moved ahead of Seville, whose cumulative figure for tenders between January and March was less than half that of Malaga at 95 million euros. Even so, the Costa del Sol province is still below the position it should be in for population size, given that it is the sixth most populous area in the whole country.
In the last quarter of 2024 public works tenders had already recorded a strong increase in the province, so that even then it managed to exceed the total for Seville. Moreover, thanks to that final stretch up to year end, Malaga managed to close its best year in terms of investment for the last decade with more than 573 million euros. This was possible thanks to resources from the Junta de Andalucía, especially its investments in health infrastructure, above all in the Regional Hospital, as well as in the Río Verde drinking water treatment plant in Marbella.
On this occasion, the boost that has made possible the growth in the volume of tenders recorded in the first quarter of this year has come from local government. Thus, of the 186.64 million euros invested in public works in the province in the first three months of this year, 125 million euros are thanks to municipal administrations (including city councils and Malaga's provincial council - the Diputación), compared to just 37.43 million euros a year earlier. The figure for the first quarter of 2025 is almost double the best figure for the same period in recent years, which was 2020 (64.55 million euros).
Compared to this investment effort by the local authorities, that of the Junta exceeds 28 million euros, which is still double the amount granted a year earlier. In terms of funding from central government, that is close to 33 million euros for the first quarter of 2025, which is also over four times the figure for the same period in 2024, when it did not reach seven million euros.
However, despite the growth in tenders from both regional and central governments, two thirds of the accumulated volume of tenders is due to investments made by local authorities. What have they invested in specifically? The online platform run by the Seopan association does not identify specific projects, but it does identify the main areas to which resources have been allocated. According to the association's data, water supply and sewer networks constitute the most important area of local investment in the first quarter of the year in the province, with close to 73 million euros. Way behind those are the works on urban development and wastewater treatment and desalination plants at over ten million euros each. Then educational infrastructure adds up to more than 7.7 million euros and also ports at almost another seven million. As for roads, 3.75 million euros have been put out to tender, and for sports infrastructure, almost 2.8 million euros. The final two areas are industrial and agricultural infrastructure at almost 2.3 million euros and parks and gardens at just over one million euros.
Seopan does not rely solely on its own data to prepare its reports, it also relies on private platforms to provide it with other data - for instance, the public procurement platform can be used to find out which are particularly the most important projects tendered by local authorities in the first quarter.
The first to appear on that list is the urban renaturalisation (extension of pedestrian areas) in Huelin district, with a budget of more than seven million euros co-financed by the EU's Next Generation funds. Next up is the work on the municipal school of music and dance in San Pedro Alcántara for 5.73 million euros, supported by Marbella town hall. Thirdly, road surface improvement works on various roads in the province, for which the provincial council is responsible, costing over 5.5 million euros. For slightly less money there are urbanisation works due on the Paseo Marítimo de Pedregalejo, between Baños del Carmen and Arroyo de Jaboneros in Malaga city. Other important tenders include the one undertaken by Alhaurín de la Torre town hall for a residential centre for the elderly, as well as the refurbishment of Casa María Barrabino in Torremolinos for just over two million euros.
The upturn in tenders in Malaga province coincides with that recorded throughout Spain: public spending on infrastructure projects exceeded 8.2 billion euros between January and March this year, which represents an increase of 26.37% year-on-year. At the national level, however, the highest growth in public works tenders has come from central government, an increase of 37% to over 2.76 billion euros. Still, the investment effort from local authorities exceeds this figure, surpassing the three billion euros milestone.
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