New Developments in El Madroñal, Benahavís

El Madroñal occupies the high ground between La Quinta and the La Zagaleta Country Club, inland of the AP-7 motorway and reached by narrow roads that wind through pine and cork oak. The setting is forested and quiet, with homes spread across hillside plots rather than gathered in a single urbanisation. Many of the new villas being built here come with views across the canopy to the Mediterranean, and the appeal is privacy and space rather than proximity to the beach or the town.

The new-build stock is almost entirely off-plan. Developers sell these homes before they complete, and the payment is staged across the build rather than made at handover. Each staged payment up to completion must be secured by a bank guarantee, which is a legal requirement on the developer. If the developer does not deliver, the guarantee ensures a buyer gets their money back. Before the developer can hand over keys, the town hall has to sign the building off as fit to live in. Waiting for that sign-off is the usual reason a completion date slips, because only the town hall can issue it.

The villas under construction here are large, typically six bedrooms, and most sit on plots measured in thousands of square metres rather than hundreds. The forest setting and the elevation mean these are not homes for someone who wants to walk to a shop or a café. San Pedro Alcántara lies fourteen minutes away by car, the nearest supermarket thirteen minutes, and the beach at Playa Canina Ventura del Mar about seventeen. The international school Aloha College is eighteen minutes by road, and the golf course at La Zagaleta Country Club eleven. The drive to Málaga Airport takes just over an hour.

Buyers here are choosing seclusion and views over convenience. The roads are steep and the plots well separated, and the location suits someone building a family home on a large site who values quiet and does not mind driving everywhere. The new developments offer sea views without the density or the noise of the coastal urbanisations, and the forest on the doorstep rather than the fairway.