New Development · Istán, Malaga
Price: €600,000
Almazara Views Phase 3, Istán: 12 Taylor Wimpey townhouses in the hills above Marbella with sea views. From €600,000 plus VAT, delivery November 2026.
Delivery: November 2026
Almazara Views Phase 3 sits on the Istán road, the A-7176, which climbs fourteen kilometres from San Pedro de Alcantara into the hills behind Marbella. The turning is signposted from junction 176 of the A-7, and the drive up is one of the better ones on this coast. The road runs along the wall of the Concepcion reservoir, then swings through pine and cork oak with the sea widening in the mirror behind you. The homes occupy the highest terrace of the Almazara masterplan, close to Sierra Blanca Country Club and roughly seven kilometres inland from Marbella, high enough that the whole bay reads as one sweep from Gibraltar round to the Sierra de Mijas.
The practical distances are short. Puerto Banus is about fifteen minutes down the hill, San Pedro de Alcantara and its beach about the same, and Marbella centre roughly twenty minutes once you are on the coast road. Malaga airport is a straight run of about fifty to fifty five minutes on the A-7 and AP-7, which matters if you are flying in for long weekends rather than living here every month of the year. Gibraltar airport is a little over an hour to the west. Nothing about living at this altitude means giving up the coast. It means arriving at it deliberately rather than sitting in the middle of it.
Istán itself is a white village of Moorish origin, four kilometres further up the road from the development. It is known across the province as the Manantial de la Costa del Sol, the spring of the Costa del Sol, because of how much water comes out of the mountain here. The Fuente del Chorro still runs into the old stone washhouse where the village women once did the laundry, and the irrigation channels threading through the streets and the citrus terraces are the same acequias the Moors cut. The Church of San Miguel dates from the sixteenth century and was built on the instruction of Diego de Deza, Archbishop of Seville. The Plaza de Andalucia has a handful of bars where the menu del dia is still priced for the people who live here.
Behind the village the land climbs into the Sierra de las Nieves, a UNESCO biosphere reserve, and the Rio Verde runs down through the municipality into the Concepcion reservoir below. That reservoir is not scenery. It supplies drinking water to most of the western Costa del Sol, which is why the catchment around it is protected and why this valley has stayed as green and as thinly built as it has. From the terraces of Phase 3 you look straight down onto it. La Concha, the 1,215 metre peak that forms the backdrop to almost every photograph ever taken of Marbella, stands directly behind the scheme, and waymarked walking routes leave the village for the pine forest and the river.
For golf you drop back down to Nueva Andalucia, about twenty minutes away, where Los Naranjos, Aloha and Las Brisas sit in the valley behind Puerto Banus, with La Quinta and Marbella Club Golf Resort a similar distance to the west. The nearest good beaches are Guadalmina and San Pedro, both wide and comparatively quiet, with Puerto Banus and its marina restaurants there when you want the other kind of evening. Everyday shopping is in San Pedro, which has a real high street, a Mercadona and a Saturday market, and the larger Centro Comercial La Canada sits on the far side of Marbella.
Families here tend to look at Laude San Pedro International College in San Pedro de Alcantara and Aloha College in Nueva Andalucia, both around twenty minutes down the hill, with Swans International School in Marbella a little further on. Hospital Costa del Sol and Quironsalud Marbella cover healthcare, roughly twenty five minutes away. The buyer profile in these hills is noticeably different from the beachfront. There are more year round residents, more families with dogs and bicycles, and more people who wanted a garden and a horizon rather than a sea wall and a lift lobby.
The logic of this hillside is straightforward. Land at this altitude buys a view that would cost several times as much in Sierra Blanca or La Zagaleta, the air is a few degrees cooler through August, and the run down to Puerto Banus is still shorter than the crawl across Marbella in July traffic. Phase 3 is the release currently on sale at Almazara Views and the last of its townhouses. Phase 1 handed over in October 2023 and Phase 2 in November 2024, and both are sold out. The neighbouring Almazara Hills and Almazara Forest phases are fully sold as well, so these twelve homes are the only thing left on the hillside that has not already been bought.
Phase 3 starts at €600,000 and every price is quoted plus VAT. On a new build bought from the developer in Spain, VAT is charged at 10 per cent, so budget for that on top of the headline figure. The upper end of the phase runs to roughly €640,000 depending on the plot position and how much terrace and solarium a particular house carries. On a twelve home release the better plots go first, so ask us for the live availability list rather than working from a published range.
Taylor Wimpey has Phase 3 scheduled for handover in November 2026. The homes are delivered fully finished rather than as a shell, so completion means keys and a working kitchen rather than a further fit out period at your own cost. Payment is staged through construction in the usual Spanish off plan pattern, with a reservation deposit, staged payments against build milestones and the balance paid at the notary on completion.
Phase 3 is twelve townhouses on the highest terrace of the scheme, and it is the only Almazara Views release on sale. Phase 1 handed over in October 2023 and Phase 2 in November 2024, and both sold out. The neighbouring Almazara Hills and Almazara Forest phases are also fully sold, so anything still advertised under those names has already gone. If you want a new townhouse on this hillside, Phase 3 is the only way in.
Each home is handed over with a fully fitted kitchen with brand name appliances, hot and cold air conditioning throughout, double glazed windows, a utility room, an underground parking space and a storeroom in the basement. Outside there is a private garden at the lower level and a private solarium on the roof, plus use of the communal pool and the landscaped gardens. Pre installation for an electric vehicle charging point comes with the parking space.
Budget for community fees covering the pool, the gardens, the lighting and the common areas, plus IBI council tax and the refuse charge from Istán town hall. Homes at this altitude generally run lower cooling bills through the summer than equivalent properties on the beachfront, which offsets part of it. If you are not tax resident in Spain you will also file the annual non resident return, Modelo 210, whether or not the house is let.
On a new build the usual set is 10 per cent VAT plus 1.2 per cent AJD stamp duty in Andalucia, then notary, land registry and independent legal fees, which together normally land between 1 and 2 per cent. You will need a Spanish NIE number and a Spanish bank account before completion. Allow roughly 13 to 14 per cent over the purchase price in total and nothing at the notary will surprise you.
Short term holiday letting in Andalucia requires the property to be registered as a vivienda con fines turisticos with the regional tourism registry, and the community of owners can restrict or prohibit it in its statutes, so confirm the position before you commit if letting income is part of the plan. Long term letting is more straightforward. Demand in these hills is steadier than on the beachfront because the tenants tend to be year round residents rather than summer visitors.
Guadalmina and San Pedro beaches are about fifteen minutes down the A-7176, and Puerto Banus is about the same. The A-7176 is a maintained provincial A road with a good surface rather than a mountain track, and everybody who lives in Istán drives it every day. Winter on this side of the Sierra Blanca is mild. What you notice at this altitude is that the summer nights are cooler and the breeze off the sea reaches you before the heat of the coast does.
Taylor Wimpey Espana, the Spanish arm of the British housebuilder, which has been building in Spain for more than sixty years. For British buyers that carries real weight. It means a developer with a UK parent company, English speaking sales and legal contacts, bank guaranteed staged payments and a delivery record you can go and inspect, including the two earlier Almazara Views phases standing on this same hillside.
The homes face south west, looking across Marbella bay towards Gibraltar, with the Concepcion reservoir and the Rio Verde valley in the middle distance and La Concha rising behind the scheme. Because Phase 3 occupies the top terrace of the masterplan there is nothing built above it, so the outlook is protected by the shape of the land rather than by a planning promise. A south west aspect also means the terraces and the solarium hold the sun through the afternoon and into the evening.
The twelve houses are arranged over three storeys plus a private solarium, with the parking and storeroom in a basement level below. They are set on a single landscaped terrace served by pedestrian paths, visitor parking and planted gardens rather than internal roads, so you park once and walk to your door. Built areas run from about 189 to 197 square metres, and each house adds a substantial private terrace and solarium on top of that.