New build Apartments for sale in Fuengirola.

Fuengirola's seven-kilometre paseo — a working seaside town of around 80,000, the C1 train to Málaga airport, and a seafront that lives all year.

If much of the coast feels like a holiday set that empties out in winter, Fuengirola doesn't. The supermarkets are busy in January, the paseo marítimo is full of dog-walkers and cyclists year-round, and you can live here without a car — which on this coast is genuinely unusual. The town is compact, flat along the front, and stitched together by the Cercanías C1 train line. That combination is exactly why it sells, and why we know this place so well.

Who lives in Fuengirola

Fuengirola is genuinely international, and crucially it's international all year, not just in August. There's a long-established Scandinavian community — Finnish and Swedish in particular, with their own churches, schools and shops around Los Boliches — alongside a deep British presence and plenty of Spanish families who've lived here for generations. You'll find retirees who came for the climate and stayed, remote workers who want a town that functions in winter, and families who need schools and a train more than they need a sea view. It's a mix of ages and budgets, which keeps the place feeling like a town rather than a resort. The flip side: it's denser and busier than Mijas or Marbella, and the high-summer crowds along the front are real. We're honest about that — some people love the buzz, some find it too much, and it's worth spending an evening here before you commit.

Architecture & property types

This is apartment country, first and foremost. The town is built upward and along the coast in a narrow strip, so the bulk of what comes to market is apartments — and we see the full spread, from ground-floor flats with a patio or a slice of garden right through to penthouses and duplex penthouses up top with the big wrap-around terraces. Ground-floor units are popular with anyone who wants step-free living near the beach; the duplex and standard penthouses are where you get the roof terrace, the sea views and the sunset. Stock ranges from solid 1970s and 80s blocks in the centre and Los Boliches — often well-priced and walkable, if dated inside — to the newer complexes climbing the hillsides at El Higuerón on the Benalmádena border and around Torreblanca, with pools, gyms and gated entrances. Villas exist on the higher ground but they're the exception here; if a detached house with a garden is the dream, we'll often point you up to Mijas Costa instead, and we'll say so plainly.

Price expectations

Fuengirola sits in the mid-band of the coast — pricier than you'd expect for the volume of housing, because demand outstrips supply and the town never really goes quiet. As a rough guide, a modest inland or older-block apartment typically starts somewhere in the mid-200,000s of euros, while a comfortable two-bed in good order, walkable to the beach, generally runs from the low-to-mid 300,000s upward. Front-line and sea-view apartments carry a clear premium — you'd typically expect a fifth or so more than the same flat a few streets back. Penthouses and duplex penthouses with proper terraces and views start higher again, commonly from around 600,000 and climbing well into seven figures in the newer El Higuerón developments. Those are bands, not promises — condition, floor, lift, parking and exactly how close the sea really is move the number a lot. We'll always tell you when a place is over-priced for what it is, and why.

Lifestyle, schools & getting around

The paseo marítimo is the spine of life here — close to seven kilometres of near-continuous promenade running from the Sohail headland east to the Mijas-Costa line, with Carvajal at the quieter eastern end and the busier town beaches in the middle. Carvajal and Los Boliches each have their own train halt, which matters: the Cercanías C1 runs every 20 minutes or so up to Málaga centre and the airport, and down to the line's terminus in Fuengirola itself. That train is what makes living here without a car a realistic choice rather than a compromise. Beyond the beach you've got Sohail Castle above the river mouth, host to summer concerts and markets, the well-regarded Bioparc, and a proper working high street rather than a tourist strip. Golfers have Mijas Golf — the two Robert Trent Jones Sr. courses, Los Lagos and Los Olivos — a short drive inland, with more around Mijas and La Cala. On schooling, be realistic: Fuengirola itself is light on international schools, and most expat families look just up the coast to Mijas Costa and Benalmádena, where the likes of St Anthony's College (British curriculum, one of the coast's oldest) sit within an easy school run.

How we work in Fuengirola

We know the homes between Los Boliches and Castillo Sohail inside out, and we treat it like the town it is, not a brochure. We'll tell you which beachfront blocks catch the afternoon breeze and which ones trap the heat, which 80s buildings are beautifully maintained and which have a community fee problem you'd inherit, and which streets get the train noise. We won't push a sea view you don't need or talk you into the summer crowds if you're after quiet. If Fuengirola turns out to be the wrong fit — too busy, too built-up — we'll happily steer you to Mijas or further along, because a happy buyer is worth more to us than a quick sale. If you'd like an honest read on the town and what your budget really buys here, drop us a line.