A year of protests and promises

The year 2025 has come to an end with similar themes appearing in a roundup of the year's news on the Costa del Sol: water, this time plenty of it; tourism figures and new records; the housing crisis; and the beginnings of major plans for the future, the Malaga Airport expansion and the Costa del Sol railway line from Nerja to Algeciras.

Rain, floods, roads and heat

March 2025 was the wettest in 20 years. 231mm was recorded in the month at Malaga Airport, the reference point for the province, although other areas had seen more. It was the second wettest March since records began in 1942 but did not beat the 270mm of 2004.

Storm Laurence led to the temporary evacuation of some 1,200 people in Campanillas as the Casasola reservoir upstream started to overflow and a 61-year-old motorcyclist was swept away by the swollen Genal river in the Serranía de Ronda.

One of the gravest consequences of the extreme weather was the landslide that completely cut off the San Pedro-Ronda road (A-397) at a point in the municipality of Benahavís. This left thousands of drivers facing a two-hour detour when travelling between Ronda and the coast. After four months of emergency repair work the road was reopened on 14 July.

The wet spring provided a boost to the province's reservoirs which were, on average, 60% full, with some having to be drained. Even La Viñuela, which had started 2024 as a 'dead' reservoir, with just 7% capacity, was 50% full by mid-April 2025.

This was another hot year with more records broken, among them for the temperature of the sea water on the Costa del Sol. On Tuesday 8 July the buoy at the Port of Malaga reached a new milestone temperature of 28C, a new record for the month of July since records began in 1984. The previous record high was in 2015 with 27.7C. The historical average for July is 20.3C in Malaga province's waters.

Malaga Airport

Malaga Airport reached 25 million passengers before the end of 2025. The historical milestone was celebrated with a ceremony in which representatives of the entire airport community and the passengers who were passing through the airport at that moment participated.

Fast-increasing passenger numbers at Malaga Airport highlighted the need for facilities to be expanded. Plans were announced in July for a multimillion-euro scheme with an investment of 1.5 billion euros over five years which will nearly double the current area. Aena has already earmarked around 90 million euros for the first steps of the plan.

Malaga made another leap towards getting more high-speed rail links with Madrid this year. French operator Ouigo - the second privately run operator to be operating on this line and the third to offer train journeys between the two cities (after Renfe and Iryo) - began operations in January. Ouigo is Malaga's fourth high speed operator, joining Ave, Iryo and Avlo.

The feasibility study for the much-anticipated coastal train plan was officially begun in 2025. Spain's ministry of transport and sustainable mobility signed the service contract with the consultancy firm, which will assess the technical and economic possibilities of building a railway along the length of the Costa del Sol, between Nerja and Algeciras.

Malaga's new hospital

The Junta de Andalucía officially awarded the contract for the construction of the long-awaited new hospital in Malaga in mid-November. A joint venture (UTE) formed won the project worth just over 543 million euros. The project is being financed with European funds and will take over six years and three months to complete once work begins, which should be in the first half of 2026.

The Andalusian medical union (SMA) called four days of strike action, from Tuesday 9 to Friday 12 December, against the legal framework being prepared by the Ministry of Health that will regulate the working conditions and rights of healthcare workers, which was rejected by all sectors within the healthcare industry. The strike meant fewer patients at surgeries, but filled emergency departments in Malaga province.

On 18 July the Spanish Ministry of Health lifted the restriction on Britons donating blood, which they hadn't been able to do since 2001 due to concerns over Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), known as 'mad cow' disease. Each region was left to decide how to proceed and in Malaga province's case, a meeting was held on 13 November when the director of the transfusion centre (CTTC) Gracia María García announced that "any donor who was a resident of the UK at that time will now be approved".

Malaga horses

After long-running protests from animal welfare groups, Malaga bid farewell to horse-drawn carriages for tourists in the city. Mayor Francisco de la Torre announced the ban on this type of tourist transport with immediate effect from Monday 6 October, with a video posted on social media. A Better Life 4 Horses' sanctuary, located in Antequera, acquired 16 of the 25 retired Malaga horses.

The problem of wild boar roaming the streets of the Costa del Sol has hit the headlines throughout 2025, with town halls and Malaga city hall scratching their heads over how to deal with the animals. In August a herd of nearly a dozen wild boar was spotted roaming freely along the banks of the Guadalmedina river near La Rosaleda stadium and in September a woman suffered serious injuries after her motorbike was in collision with a large wild boar in Malaga city.

Caminito del Rey anniversary

The Caminito del Rey marked a decade attracting thrill-seekers in 2025. Around three million visitors have braved this dramatic walkway since it reopened in 2015. It generated an economic impact exceeding 60 million euros in 2024, making it one of the top attractions across the entire Andalucía region. To mark the tenth anniversary, construction of a new 110-metre hanging footbridge at the end of the route was announced. The 1.25-million-euro project is being funded entirely by the operating consortium.

After being closed for several years, the proposed plans for the reopening of the legendary Tivoli amusement park in Benalmádena were announced. The 100-million-euro project will allow the construction of a new amusement park slightly larger than the previous one, to which a large tourist and commercial complex will be added.

The town of Humilladero in Malaga province opened Laberintus Park in February, the largest hedge maze in Spain. Designed by Adrian Fischer, one of the most important creators of mazes in the world, this new space was inspired by the gardens of the Alhambra in Granada, and spans more than 7,400 square metres.

Rising property prices

The property sales market continued to soar throughout 2025, with no signs of slowing down. Between the third quarter of 2024 and the third quarter of 2025, the average price of property for sale in Malaga city increased by 14.6 per cent. The price of a 70-square-metre apartment now costs 205,000 euros on average to buy.

While data suggests a return to somewhat lower rental prices in Malaga city, the same cannot be said at the provincial level. In the last 12 months, there has once again been an increase of over ten per cent.

The difficulty for local people to access housing has led to calls for less tourist accommodation. Malaga city officially suspended new tourist rental licences, marking the latest move in a series of local measures aimed at curbing the rapid expansion of short-term rentals. The council's governing board approved a revision of the city's urban master plan (PGOU), imposing a three-year suspension on new tourist accommodation permits citywide.

Gender-based violence

Malaga province presents a stark picture when it comes to gender-based violence this year: six women have been killed, reportedly by their partners or ex-partners, making this the most tragic year in the province since records began in 2003. Malaga also tops the national statistics, surpassing even Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, as reflected in data published by the government delegation against gender-based violence.

There has been increased concern about the use of firearms on the Costa del Sol, following several gangland executions. These include the murder of a young British man who was riddled with bullets in Mijas in April. The shootings continued the following month when two Scottish men were murdered at an Irish bar in Fuengirola, the culmination of a long clan war that originated in Scotland. In September, a 39-year-old Danish national was shot in the face during a violent ambush in Alhaurín de la Torre by two men wearing fake police vests.

Robbie Williams in Malaga

Pop icon Robbie Williams and holiday giant TUI sealed their partnership in Malaga when the British entertainer gave an exclusive concert at Malaga port on 9 April, as part of the inauguration ceremony of Mein Schiff Relax, the German company's new luxury cruise ship, which chose the capital of the Costa del Sol for the spectacular ceremony.

'Gianni Versace. Retrospective', opened to the public on 7 February at the Centro Cultural Fundación Unicaja in Malaga city and included more than 500 original pieces from dresses and accessories to unpublished photographs, fabrics, drawings, prototype pieces and prints from the different periods of the designer's career.

Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was in Malaga for the San Diego Comic-Con Málaga (SDCCM) on Sunday 28 September. He was introduced by Antonio Banderas.

Tens of thousands of people from Malaga were in Rome on 17 and 18 May to witness the procession of two images from Andalucía to mark the Jubilee of Confraternities. Chosen to be carried through the city in a grand procession were the much-loved Christ figure known as El Cachorro from Seville and the Virgen de la Esperanza, an iconic image from Malaga.

Imec centre comes to Malaga

A major announcement earlier in 2025 was that the Costa del Sol is to be home to a major microelectronics hub. This will be the first centre outside Belgium of Imec, the international research and development organisation, and the project is to receive some 615 million euros in public funding.