Marbella, Spain's Southern California says The Wall Street Journal

In recent weeks, the international media – on both sides of the Atlantic – have been waxing lyrical about the Costa del Sol, both as a cultural holiday destination as well as the ideal place to own a sunshine home. Málaga city has certainly had no shortage of glowing column inches written about it of late, and while at the beginning of April, the Daily Mail called the capital of the Costa del Sol ‘the new Barcelona!’, this time the spotlight is well and truly on Marbella, as the hallowed Wall Street Journal compares it – in a good way – with Southern California…

Beneath its ‘Marbella Makes a Splash’ headline, the article concentrates, as you’d expect, on the resort’s high-end homes in the coveted areas of the Golden Mile, Los Monteros, Sierra Blanca and La Zagaleta, where price tags typically start at a cool €5 million. Noting that ‘new-generation homeowners may commute to Central or Northern Europe during the week and spend long weekends in the sun’, the report also includes a brief history of the town’s evolution since the 1960s and ‘70s, as well as a stunning video and image gallery featuring some of Marbella’s most famous of landmarks and most distinguished of luxury mansions.

Quoting the founder of Panorama Properties, Christopher Clover, the WSJ reports that having fallen by some 15 per cent, the prices of exclusive residences in Marbella have now returned to pre-crisis levels and also goes on to say that with renewed interest from Middle Eastern and Scandinavian buyers – plus improved infrastructure and year-round appeal to younger buyers – the town is on the rebound, ‘and is beginning to resemble Southern California more than Southern Spain’.