Marbella’s former language school to be turned into apartments for young people

The price of rental housing in Marbella has skyrocketed meaning that there are few affordable offers for young people, who are having to shell out a minimum of 400 euros per month just to rent a room. Quite often landlords will only rent rooms during the low season and from June to September many tenants have to vacate their homes so that the owners can let them out to tourists.

In a bid to tackle the problem, Marbella town hall announced on Thursday 2 November work has begun on the building that used to house the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas (official language school), located on Avenida Huerta de los Cristales, to convert it into 18 rental flats for young people.

Mayor of Marbella Ángeles Muñoz said: "our objective [during] this term of office is to continue to promote public housing and these are the first to be offered for rent so that families who want to become independent have the opportunity to do so at very competitive prices". Muñoz went on to say that rent will be between 130 and 190 euros per month and explained that each flat will have one or two bedrooms.

The budget for the project exceeds one million euros, 50 percent of which is coming from the town hall coffers, a further 25 per cent from Junta de Andalucía and the central government is contributing the remaining 25 per cent.

The mayor stressed that the approval of the Municipal Housing and Land Plan for Marbella, which envisages an investment of more than 80 million euros over five years, "will make available to citizens 700 publicly developed properties, developed both by the town hall and by private initiatives".