Marbella is a city renowned for its lifestyle and outdoors, with over 300 days of sunshine, it is an impressive environment seamlessly combining the sea and mountains alongside its glamorous social life. All this and more easily relates to the interior of a home, and when choosing among the countless properties that the city offers, the same questions arises; Garden or Terrace? Barbecue or Chill-out area? Independence or community living? in short, a villa or an apartment? These are some of the questions that repeat over and over for clients when deciding to purchase a new home. Doubts that arise since the beginning of the real estate market. Therefore Marbella Unique Properties have decided to present a small guide focusing on the key points that these properties share along with their uniqueness that facilitates the decision making process.
Size
Perhaps the most remarkable and easily recognizable factor is the size of the property. Everyone knows that independent villas afford much more space both inside and outside. Saying this, the city of Marbella thanks to its large portfolio of luxury properties also boasts large apartments, reaching up to 300m2 in urbanizations such as Laguna de Banús or Casa Nova (and sometimes double in size if the opportunity to purchase 2 properties arises being able to merge into 1 extremely large apartment). Returning the most basic; for example a villa in an area such as Sierra Blanca will provide us with more spacious rooms, larger storage areas, and ultimately more comfort when it comes to hosting multiple guests. Having an apartment also offers great value, since Marbella is a city of many second and third residences where people come to disconnect, therefore less meters will enable greater efficiency when it comes to keeping the property clean and maintained, ready to come open the door and use at any time.
Location
This is a factor that may not be so easy to choose, as Marbella offers quality properties and a comfortable lifestyle. The apartments are usually located in more central areas, while the villas are located in areas away from the hustle and bustle of a city centre. As an obvious consequence with close proximity to all kinds of basic services such as restaurants, hospitals, supermarkets, schools. The villas on the other hand, are usually located in rural areas, so they set in tranquil settings surrounded by natural beauty. This also directly affects the market value of the property, which we will discuss later, but perhaps the most popular city on the Costa del Sol does not present this a such an important factor as it may be in other cities, as we have previously mentioned with residential villa areas such as Sierra Blanca, Nueva Andalucía or Guadalmina at only 5 or 10 minutes by car from all city services. Another area such as the famous La Zagaleta private estate located in a more remote area, boasts a very private setting with services within the urbanization itself to facilitate the lives of its residents.
Security
Many Marbella people do not usually doubt when stating that an apartment is safer than an independent house, due to the facilities it offers with regard to leaving and closing the property. But again the Marbella standard of living plays a crucial role, as many residential developments of villas have 24-hour surveillance service, cameras along the streets of the developments with the most up-to-date anti-theft systems. This brings us back to the same question of Villas vs Apartments.
Communal areas and leisure spaces
Here the human factor comes into play, as the most important piece for decision making. Living in a community is not only exclusive with regard to apartments, since many villa complexes can also offer similar services, although as a rule the type of relationship maintained with the neighbours would be different. In villages, many rules don’t apply when it comes to, for example, carrying out refurbishments. Apartment complexes share facilities such as gyms, swimming pools and clubhouses; this increases the social interaction between neighbours. It comes down to personal taste, a villa will give you your own garden where you can enjoy the hot climate with your family and pets, and apartment community livings greatest advantage is enjoying services and sharing of costs between community owners.
Costs and maintenance
The first two factors that determine the price of a property are its size and location, as we already mentioned in the ‘Location’ section, the apartments are usually located in more central areas due to better use of space and land availability, in addition villas in central areas such as the Golden Mile are extremely exclusive and this is reflected in the price. Leaving the price of the sale aside, the costs of a villa will always be greater than those of an apartment, although we also have to take into account the different types of liberties that are enjoyed by owners of villas when it comes to making refurbishments. In a villa relevant taxes must be paid, and in some cases also community fees (mainly for the security services provided and street maintenance). In an apartment you have to take into account the type of development that the property is located in, with its diverse services such as gyms, saunas, swimming pools, gardens… as they will be included in the community fees. Although the positive side is not needing to worry when it comes to maintaining the buildings itself, as these services are usually included within the repair and general maintenance services.
As you can see it can be really difficult to choose which type of property is best for you, but without a doubt having such variety of properties to choose from in Marbella can make the choice somewhat easier. If you still cannot decide between an independent house and an apartment after reading this guide, perhaps what you are looking for is a hybrid between these options, which is known as a semi-detached house or townhouse. Do not hesitate to contact us, Marbella Unique Properties has a large portfolio of properties that meets the needs for all types of clients.