New developments for sale in El Faro, Mijas Costa.

El Faro's lighthouse point — rock-pool coves, low-rise streets, Fuengirola five minutes east.

El Faro takes its name from the working lighthouse on the Punta de Calaburras, first lit in 1863 and rebuilt in 1928, and the neighbourhood still arranges itself around that point. It sits on the eastern edge of Mijas Costa, between Fuengirola and La Cala de Mijas, with white low-rise urbanisations stepping up the slope between the old coast road and the A-7. There is no strip of bars and no high-rise front line here; the shore is a mix of sand and rock, the rock pools below the lighthouse are the local pastime, and the handful of beach restaurants are more Spanish in character than almost anywhere else on this stretch. If you want somewhere genuinely residential that is still a short drive from a full-sized town, El Faro is one of the most sensible answers on the coast.

Who lives in El Faro

More year-round Spanish families than the neighbouring purpose-built resorts, which shapes the feel of the place — the restaurants around Playamarina and the point trade through winter on local custom, not just summer visitors. Alongside them you will find British, Irish and Dutch owners who bought for the quiet, and a steady Scandinavian presence that comes naturally with Fuengirola next door, home to the coast's Finnish and Swedish communities and their schools. Retirees like the ground-floor apartments with gardens; younger families take the same homes for the school run to Fuengirola or St Anthony's College. Holiday lets exist, particularly close to the beach, but they do not dominate the way they do in Calahonda or parts of Riviera del Sol. The result is a neighbourhood that goes quiet in the evening rather than loud, and stays inhabited in January.

Architecture & property types

Apartments lead the market here, and ground-floor apartments are a genuine local speciality rather than a consolation prize. Most of the stock is in two- and three-storey Andalusian-style complexes built through the 1980s and 1990s — white walls, terracotta roofs, mature communal gardens and pools — in communities such as Colinas del Faro and El Faro de Calaburras. The ground-floor units typically come with private terraces or small gardens, which is why they are so sought after by both retirees and families. Penthouses appear in a steady trickle, prized for sea views over the rooftops towards the lighthouse. Above and around the apartment communities sit townhouses, bungalow-style homes and detached villas, with the best plots on the point itself and on the upper slopes facing the water. Newer gated complexes such as Vitta Marina have filled in nearer the shore, and the adjoining Las Farolas and El Chaparral areas to the west add contemporary builds beside the golf course.

Price expectations

El Faro remains one of the better-value beachside pockets between Fuengirola and Marbella. A two-bedroom apartment in an established community typically runs from around €220,000 to €350,000, depending on condition and how much sea you can actually see from the terrace. Ground-floor apartments with a private garden, and three-bedroom units generally sit between €300,000 and €500,000, with the newer gated complexes near the shore at the top of that band. Penthouses with open views generally ask €350,000 to €650,000. Townhouses tend to range from roughly €450,000 to €1 million, the upper end being contemporary builds towards El Chaparral, and detached villas start around €550,000 and climb past €1.5 million for renovated homes near the point. Be careful with the sea-view premium: it is real, but it is also the most over-applied number in El Faro, and we will tell you when an asking price assumes a view the sofa cannot see.

Beaches, the point and daily life

The beach is the reason most owners stay. Playa El Faro runs for the better part of a kilometre below the lighthouse, sand broken by rock that makes for some of the best rock-pooling and snorkelling on the Costa del Sol, with Playa del Charcón and the Playamarina stretch alongside — the latter backed by a run of beach restaurants, a pharmacy and supermarkets, so everyday errands do not require the car. Beyond the point there is a quieter naturist stretch, and the Senda Litoral coastal path lets you walk east towards Fuengirola's Sohail Castle and the promenade. Faro Playa is the stalwart seafront restaurant; the cooking around here is unfussy and Spanish. For everything bigger — the Miramar shopping centre, the Tuesday market, cinemas, the health centres — Fuengirola is five to ten minutes by car, and La Cala de Mijas with its beach-town high street is about five minutes the other way.

Schools, golf & getting around

St Anthony's College, the long-established British-curriculum school between Fuengirola and Mijas, takes pupils from three to eighteen and is a short run up the coast; Fuengirola itself adds the Swedish School and the Finnish school in Los Pacos, plus the full range of Spanish state and concertado options. Golfers are spoilt for proximity: El Chaparral Golf Club is effectively next door, an unusual layout of six par threes, six par fours and six par fives threading through pine forest seven hundred metres from the beach, with Miraflores, Calanova, Santana, Mijas Golf's Los Lagos and Los Olivos, and the three courses at La Cala Golf Resort all within roughly fifteen to twenty minutes. The A-7 and the AP-7 toll road sit directly behind the neighbourhood; Málaga airport is around twenty-five minutes, Marbella much the same. Fuengirola's station is the terminus of the C-1 Cercanías line, giving train access to the airport and Málaga María Zambrano, and the coastal bus between Fuengirola and Marbella stops along the old road through El Faro.

How we work in El Faro

We treat El Faro complex by complex, because the differences matter more than the listings suggest. Some communities here are impeccably run with sensible fees; others carry dated installations priced as if they were refurbished. Homes on the lower side of the old road hear the sea; some on the upper slope hear the A-7 instead, and orientation around the point decides who gets the afternoon levante. These are the things we walk you through before you fall for a terrace photograph. We will always tell you which homes are over-priced and why — whether that is an imagined sea view, a community with works pending, or simply an owner testing the market. If you are weighing El Faro against La Cala, El Chaparral or Torreblanca, we will give you the honest comparison, including the cases where El Faro is not the right answer. Tell us what you are looking for and drop us a line.