Malaga province starts 2026 with highest three-year rise in housing prices

This year began with a new rise in housing prices in the province of Malaga. The latest report from valuations company Gesvalt maintains the upward trend of recent years for both properties for sale and for rent.

Homes for sale in the province have recorded the largest increase in the last three years, with a 16% year-on-year rise in the first quarter of 2026, during which the average price per square metre climbed to 3,143 euros.

Rents are also keeping pace with the upward trend of recent years, with an average year-on-year increase of 8.5%, bringing the price to 17.11 euros per square metre per month of rent at the provincial level. Rents have increased by 2% from January to March.

Price trends in Malaga city are very similar. The price per square metre for sale has surpassed 3,000 euros for the first time, reaching 3,064, an 11% increase compared to a year ago. Meanwhile, the average rental price in the city has risen to 16.72 euros, almost 6% higher than in the first quarter of 2025.

Housing costs also keep growing in Marbella, where luxury residential developments drive the average price to 3,446 euros per square metre, 10% higher than a year ago. Rentals in Marbella also meet their highest price in the province, at 21.52 euros per square metre per month.

Also noteworthy is the case of Benalmádena, a town where prices have already surpassed 3,000 euros per square metre for sale, with an average of 3,116 euros, 13% higher than a year ago. Fuengirola (2,859 euros, a 13% year-on-year increase) and Torremolinos (2,875 euros, a 14% increase) are also approaching 3,000 euros. In Estepona and Mijas, the price of housing for sale reaches 2,747 and 2,702 euros per square metre, respectively.

The case of Vélez-Málaga is striking. This town has registered the highest year-on-year increase among Malaga municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, with a 17.5% growth, bringing the price per square metre for sale to 1,835 euros in the capital of the Axarquía district.

This price increase coincides with a significant rise in new residential projects. According to data, the association of architects approved 235 new homes in Vélez-Málaga in the first quarter of the year, compared to just 39 in the same period of 2025.

According to Gregorio Abril (Gesvalt's director for Andalucía), Malaga province doesn't expect any price decrease in the short term. "We have an excessively strained sector, with record-breaking price increases that are far from easing. The price trend is clearly upward," he tells SUR.

According to Abril, the increase in new residential developments is "clearly insufficient". "Currently, there are still ongoing construction projects, with few to be completed this year, which restricts the rapid entry of new housing into the market, further exacerbating price pressures," he states.

Abril says that Malaga city is now "among the five provincial capitals with the most expensive housing in Spain". Regarding rentals, he believes that "the increase in tourism and population, with a census increase of more than 70,000 people in the last three years, is relentlessly driving demand, so the number and pace of creation of new rental flats are absolutely insufficient".