Malaga construction: flats worth up to five million euros at La Térmica development

The upward price trend continues in what is now known as Malaga's 'golden mile': the westernmost point of the city's coastline, where construction is about to begin on new luxury buildings on the La Térmica site.

These buildings will follow the trend set by the three towers Metrovacesa and Sierra Blanca built in the nearby Torre del Río area. Upper-floor flats in those towers were sold for three to four million euros and Metrovacesa even advertised a 20th-floor flat for 4.8 million euros.

The La Térmica residential project represents another step in the price surge in this area. Construction of the first phase of the project, comprising 173 homes, should begin in the coming weeks or months.

With 40 per cent of the flats already reserved, some units remain for sale at around five million euros, despite not being on the upper floors of the eleven-story building.

As SUR has confirmed, a four-bedroom, four-bathroom flat on the fourth floor is for sale for 4,950,000 euros. It has 193 square metres of usable space (730 square metres built) over three floors plus a solarium and features a 272-square-metre terrace with a private pool and sea views.

Also within that first building, the Aedas Homes developer is selling one flat on the seventh floor for 4,975,000 euros. It has similar characteristics, although a smaller footprint, with 167 square metres of usable space (452 square metres built). This means that each square metre costs 11,007 euros, 3.5 times more than the average in the city, which has reached 3,064 per square metre, according to the latest Gesvalt price report.

These are currently the most expensive properties on the Idealista website. It's possible that penthouses will reach similar or even higher prices.

The cheapest flat in this first phase is a one-bedroom flat with two bathrooms and a terrace, offering 61 square metres of usable space (105 square metres built), on the fifth floor. It costs 755,000 euros, which is 7,190 euros per square metre.

There are also other flats at over one million euros available on the first through fifth floors, such as: a three-bedroom, three-bathroom flat on the first floor at 1,300,000 euros, with a usable area of 114 square metres and a two-bedroom flat at 1,210,000 euros (68 square metres of usable space) on the fifth floor. Also available for sale on the fifth floor is another three-bedroom flat for 1,480,000 euros.

The development will feature a gym, sauna, spa, coworking space, social club, gardens and children's play areas.

According to Aedas Homes, the buyers who have reserved properties so far are primarily Spanish, from Malaga. "We're talking about high-quality homes with cutting-edge architecture, bearing the hallmark of the architectural firms François Leclerq Associés and T10," the developer says.

It is, however, striking how high these prices are, especially at a time when the main investment fund behind the La Térmica project, Ginkgo, is finalising the sale of its urban development rights in this operation, which includes a total of 367 open-market homes, to Naiz Homes (a new real estate company of Basque entrepreneurs).

This sale is worth around 100 million euros, so it could be the largest sale of urban development rights in Malaga in recent decades.

On the other hand, the city council plans to auction off its share of the La Térmica 'pie' this year: a plot for a hotel with a ground floor plus eleven floors in the area closest to Avenida Moliere, at a starting price of 16.5 million euros. The city council will also auction off another plot for the construction of offices at a starting price of 13.2 million euros.

This is far from the 100 million euros that Ginkgo expects to pocket from the sale of its rights. According to some experts, this sale could further increase the price of the homes that have already been reserved and those that Aedas is selling.

The La Térmica residential development also includes the construction of 273 social housing units, but this depends on the prior relocation of an existing electrical substation to a new location near the Martín Carpena sports centre.

This new residential area could house approximately 2,000 residents, in addition to the 150 rooms that the hotel could offer. The project also includes sports and social facilities, green spaces, roads and an underground public car park with around 200 spaces.