Marbella Approves 156 Homes at La Cañada and a 200-Million-Euro Marina Expansion

Two significant approvals have moved forward in Marbella this September, and together they say a lot about where the town is headed. The council cleared a 156-home neighbourhood at La Cañada after more than six years of processing, and the regional government confirmed a 200 million euro expansion of Puerto Banús’s neighbour port, La Bajadilla, that will nearly triple its capacity. Neither project breaks ground tomorrow, but both are now past the point where they could quietly stall.

156 New Homes at La Cañada

Marbella’s Junta de Gobierno Local has approved the urbanization project for URP-MB-2 Tenis de Marbella, a 156-home development on more than 105,000 square metres north of the AP-7, next to Trapiche del Prado and just west of La Cañada shopping centre. All 156 units are single-family homes, not apartments, plus one existing private house on its own 4,000 square metre plot that stays outside the new build.

The developer is Cordia, the residential platform of Hungary’s Futureal Group, which has sold more than 11,000 homes across Spain, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the UK. The site’s original Plan Parcial dates to 1991, but getting from that old approval to an active project took over six years, mostly because the site borders Trapiche del Prado, a protected heritage property that required an archaeological survey on top of standard environmental permits. The Junta de Andalucía issued the project’s environmental authorization in February 2026, and last week’s council approval was the final procedural step before infrastructure work can start.

Almost half the site, more than 44,000 square metres, goes back to public use: 25,366 square metres of green space, a 1,660 square metre educational plot, a 2,249 square metre social facility, 127 public parking spaces and over 12,500 square metres of new pedestrian streets. On the private side, the homes come with 251 parking spaces and a 4,063 square metre sports facility. The terrain is steep and uneven, so most of the roughly 8 million euro urbanization budget goes into terracing, retaining walls and drainage before a single home gets built.

A project this size, this close to an established shopping and transport corridor, is rare on the current Costa del Sol pipeline, and it fits a pattern we’ve flagged before: the coast has plenty of new-build stock but a real shortage of well-located, well-planned projects. It’s also consistent with the supply-shortage story we’ve been tracking rather than a bubble. Anyone following what else is coming through the pipeline can browse everything currently off-plan or under construction on our New Developments page.

A 200-Million-Euro Marina at La Bajadilla

The other big move is at sea. La Bajadilla, Marbella’s port next to Puerto Banús, has a new concession holder, Marina Internacional de Marbella, putting more than 200 million euros into an expansion that will take berths from 268 to around 750 and let the port receive cruise ships and vessels up to 70 metres. The contract was formalized on 1 September 2026 and runs for 40 years starting 1 January 2027.

The project has a complicated history. It first went to tender in 2010 at 77 million euros, was awarded the following year to a consortium linked to the former owner of Málaga CF, and then collapsed when the concession was rescinded by court order. Marina Internacional de Marbella, the only other bidder from that original 2010 process, has now picked it up, but the people actually behind that name today aren’t who they were then. The consortium is still Grupo Alfil, Marina del Mediterráneo Marbella and Cyes Construcciones on paper, but the last two are now owned by Rover Grupo, a Valencian infrastructure company with more than 800 staff that bought Cyes’s maritime division out of insolvency in 2015 and took over Marina del Mediterráneo Marbella in 2022. Grupo Alfil is the local side of the deal, a Marbella family firm founded in 1952 and now listed as Alfil Patrimonial Socimi, the first Marbella-based company of its kind on the stock market.

The project itself has also changed shape. The version that goes ahead now drops the ten-storey hotel that was part of an earlier 2023 proposal, cut for breaching Spain’s coastal protection law, and instead adds a 1.13 kilometre main breakwater, a 450 metre secondary breakwater, a boatyard, more than 10,000 square metres of commercial and fishing space and around 1,000 parking spaces. The concessionaire has 11 months to finalize the execution project and 36 more to build it, so the full expansion is expected to take about four years once work starts.

It’s a scale-up that puts La Bajadilla in a different league, closer to what Puerto Sotogrande already offers further down the coast, and it signals continued confidence in Marbella’s position in the Mediterranean superyacht market even as the wider luxury sector keeps expanding here.

Questions people are asking

What does this mean for property buyers in Marbella?

Both projects point the same direction: developers and investors are still committing capital to Marbella despite tight land supply, backing the view that current prices reflect scarcity rather than a bubble. A well-located single-family scheme like La Cañada and a 200 million euro marina upgrade don’t happen where demand is expected to soften.

When will the La Cañada homes be built?

No completion date has been confirmed. The council approved the urbanization project in September 2026, which covers roads, utilities and infrastructure, typically a year or more ahead of home construction.

Why did the La Cañada project take six years to approve?

The site borders Trapiche del Prado, a protected heritage property, which required an archaeological survey alongside standard environmental permits. The original Plan Parcial dates to 1991, but full approval only came through in 2026.

How big will the new La Bajadilla marina be?

Berths will grow from 268 to around 750, with capacity for cruise ships and vessels up to 70 metres, backed by a 200 million euro investment from Marina Internacional de Marbella.

When will the La Bajadilla expansion be finished?

The concessionaire has 11 months to finalize the execution project and 36 more to build it, so the full expansion is expected to take about four years once work starts.

Who is paying for the port expansion?

Marina Internacional de Marbella, a consortium made up of Marbella’s Grupo Alfil and the Valencian infrastructure group Rover Grupo, which owns the consortium’s other two members, is funding the more than 200 million euro project.