New developments for sale in San Pedro de Alcántara.

San Pedro de Alcántara, Marbella's working Andalusian town — a real square, a life of its own, and Puerto Banús five minutes east.

Who lives in San Pedro de Alcántara

San Pedro draws a broader, more rooted crowd than the showier corners of Marbella. You'll find Spanish families who have been here for generations alongside Northern European residents who came for a holiday home and quietly stayed for good. It works because the town actually functions year-round: there's a primary-school run, a Saturday market, a doctor's surgery and a butcher who knows your name, not just a season of restaurants that shutter in November. Families are the backbone, drawn by the international schools and the safe, walkable centre. Retirees value the flat streets, the long promenade and the unhurried café culture around La Colonia. And because Puerto Banús and Nueva Andalucía are a short hop east, plenty of people who work in Marbella's smarter quarters choose to live here instead — better value, calmer evenings, and a community that doesn't empty out off-season. Holiday-home owners do well too, tucked into the golf urbanisations of Guadalmina and Nueva Alcántara, but San Pedro never feels like a resort. It feels like a town that happens to sit on a very good beach.

Architecture & property types

Villas set the tone here, and they come in real variety — from the mature, generously plotted homes of Guadalmina Baja and Guadalmina Alta, many wrapped around the two golf courses, to more contemporary new-builds on the better streets of Nueva Alcántara and Cortijo Blanco. Alongside the villas runs a deep supply of apartments and penthouses: the beachside blocks of Nueva Alcántara and San Pedro Playa, the gated communities near the Boulevard, and the resale stock that turns over steadily in the town itself. You'll also find a good run of duplexes, ground-floor apartments with private gardens (a favourite with families and dog-owners), the occasional duplex penthouse with a proper roof terrace, and semi-detached villas that bridge the gap between a townhouse budget and a freestanding home. The architectural mood is comfortably mixed — classic whitewashed Andalusian and Mediterranean villas sitting beside cleaner, glass-and-render modern builds. Guadalmina Baja, between the old N-340 and the sea, holds the grandest detached villas; Guadalmina Alta, on the inland side, is leafier, family-oriented and gentler on the wallet.

Price expectations

San Pedro is one of the better-value spots on Marbella's western flank — you're paying for substance rather than a Puerto Banús postcode. As a rough guide, apartments typically open from around the low-to-mid €200,000s for a modest flat in a residential block, run through the €400,000s to €700,000s for something well-located near the beach or the Boulevard, and climb past €1 million for the largest sea-view penthouses. Townhouses and semi-detached villas generally sit in the €400,000s to €800,000s depending on condition and position. Villas span the widest band of all: a smaller home on the inland side might start in the high €600,000s to €900,000s, while the established detached villas of Guadalmina Baja and the best new-builds frequently run from €1.5 million well into multiple millions. Those are typical ranges, not promises — position, plot, sea views and how recently a property was renovated shift the figure considerably. What we will always do is tell you which homes are sensibly priced and which are carrying an optimistic asking figure, and exactly why.

Lifestyle, schools & getting around

Daily life centres on La Colonia, the leafy old square with its church and the handsome buildings left from the town's 19th-century sugar-mill colony — the restored distillery is now an arts centre, a quiet reminder that San Pedro earned its keep long before tourism arrived. Down at the coast, the tiled promenade runs for two kilometres, wide and planted, past family-friendly sandy beaches and a string of chiringuitos. The Boulevard, laid over the buried A-7, knitted the town back together with playgrounds, an amphitheatre and open-air dining — a genuinely clever piece of planning. For families, Laude San Pedro International College sits right in town with a British curriculum, while Atalaya International School and Calpe School are a short drive west. Golf is close at hand: Guadalmina's two 18-hole courses, Atalaya and Los Arqueros are all on the doorstep. Getting around is easy — Puerto Banús is about five minutes east, Marbella and Estepona each around fifteen, Nueva Andalucía roughly ten, Benahavís village fifteen up the valley, and Málaga airport about 55 minutes along the AP-7.

How we work in San Pedro de Alcántara

We keep a tight, honest list rather than papering the window with everything going. Because we live on this part of the coast, we can tell you the things that don't show up in a listing photo: which Guadalmina streets stay quiet, which beachfront blocks catch the afternoon levante wind, where the morning sun lands on a terrace, and which communities have healthy reserves versus a community fee about to jump. We'll walk you through the real numbers — IBI, community charges, the 7% transfer tax on a resale or the 10% VAT and stamp duty on a new-build, plus notary and legal costs — so there are no surprises at the notary's office. And if a home is over-priced or simply wrong for you, we'll say so plainly; we would rather lose a commission than sell you a mistake. Whether you're after a Guadalmina villa, a beachside apartment or a family townhouse near the schools, we're happy to share what we genuinely think — so drop us a line.