Mijas
Mijas is three settlements inside one boundary, and the choice is between them rather than between Mijas and its neighbours. Mijas Pueblo is a white village on a mountainside at 430 metres with a view along the whole coast; this is where the coach tours go. La Cala de Mijas is a separate village by the water, 1.6 km of dark sand. Las Lagunas is housing and shops long since grown into Fuengirola: Mijas on paper, the edge of the next town in practice. Six kilometres of hairpin road separate the upper village from the sea, and they are quite different places to live.
As late as the fifties people here fished and worked the land. Then the building started, and the town has not stopped since: in the five years after 2000 alone it gained almost forty per cent more residents. Mijas is now third in the province by population, after Málaga and Marbella. It lives on people who buy homes here: seven golf courses, a third of residents foreign, more than seven thousand British alone. There is no railway, but from Las Lagunas you can walk to the station in Fuengirola and ride to the airport. From Mijas Pueblo you go nowhere without a car.
- Fuengirola · 8 km — the train to Málaga and the airport, and the hospital
- Marbella · 30 km — the old town and Puerto Banús
- Málaga · 34 km — airport, station, museums
Mijas sits in Costa del Sol Occidental, Málaga, 6.3 km from the water. The sea is 6.3 km away: not a seaside town but a town near the sea, and the beach means a drive. 32.5% of residents are foreign nationals per the census: Spanish is not the only language you will hear on the street. Summers are packed: tourist load hits 5 out of 5 at the peak against 1 in winter.
Hospital, terrain, getting around
Where from: the Ministry of Health hospital catalogue, road time · elevations from the Copernicus terrain model · OpenStreetMap · ratings for car-free and hospital minutes are ours.
Mijas sea temperature by month
4 months above 20 °CsourceAverage sea surface temperature, °C, for 2015–2024 — NOAA OISST satellite series, grid cell 23.6 km from the centre.
Tourist load
Mijas beaches and water quality
sourceMijas has 6 beaches tested under EU bathing water rules, at 6 sampling points. In the 2025 season, all 6 were graded excellent. The last “poor” grade here was in 2003: Playa Calahonda 1.
The grade is bacteria in water samples over the last four seasons — not sand, views or crowds. “Poor” means bathing there is advised against.
| Beach | From the centre | Grade 2025 | “Excellent” in a row | Last “poor” |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Playa El Charcon | 9.9 km | excellent | 30 seasons | none since 1990 |
| Playa del Chaparral | 10.2 km | excellent | 4 seasons | none since 2022 |
| Playa La Cala | 11 km | excellent | 35 seasons | 1990 |
| Playa El Bombo | 11.9 km | excellent | 31 seasons | none since 1995 |
| Playa Calahonda 2 | 13.2 km | excellent | 16 seasons | none since 2010 |
| Playa Calahonda 1 | 14.4 km | excellent | 19 seasons | 2003 |
Where from: European Environment Agency, bathing water register, seasons 1990–2025, licence CC BY 4.0. Distance is from the centre in a straight line. Every place in one table
On the map
What tenants actually pay
sourcedThis is the median rent on active leases — tax records for 2024, a sample of 3 391 leases. It includes long-standing contracts at unchanged rents, so it sits below what is asked today: our estimate of asking rent is 1 160 € for a two-bedroom.
The point of the 75th percentile: it is closer to what is being signed now than the median. The gap between them shows how much a new tenant overpays relative to long-standing ones.
Where from: SERPAVI, Ministerio de Vivienda · municipality: Mijas
Rent by number of bedrooms
asking price, estimate| 1 bedroom | 830 €/mo | |
| 2 bedrooms | 1 160 €/mo | |
| 3 bedrooms | ≈ 1 510 €/mo | model: two-bed × 1.3, no measurement yet |
| Median of active leases, 2024 | 615 €/mo | SERPAVI · 81 m² |
Asking prices are what long lets are advertised at today; the registry is what tenants pay on signed leases, including old ones. The gap between them is your negotiating argument.
Schools nearby
estimateInternational schools counted in the base: 1. Names and curricula for this place are not verified yet — the school registry covers the thirty most-requested places so far.
Renting without a Spanish contract
How realistic a long lease is without a nómina — on foreign income, savings or prepayment.
- —32.5% foreign residents — income from abroad is routine for landlords here
- —A community with its own services: agencies have dealt with foreigners before
This is our model, not a measurement: demanding a nómina is an individual landlord's practice and nobody publishes it. The rating is derived from the share of foreign residents, the presence of a community with services, price growth, seasonality of the stock and the size of the town.
Who lives here
INE 2025- United Kingdom7 541
- Morocco2 438
- Italy1 788
- Ukraine1 358
- Argentina1 127
- Russia1 111
- Colombia1 095
- Germany980
- enEnglish~7 541school, doctors or lawyers in the languageUK citizens in the 2025 census; the largest foreign group, with British estate agents, doctors and pubs since the 1970s
- ruRussian~1 111school, doctors or lawyers in the languageRussian citizens in the 2025 census, plus 1,358 Ukrainian citizens
- deGerman~980school, doctors or lawyers in the language
Where from: INE, Censo Anual de Población · the register-based census counts padrón registrations by citizenship on 1 January, not everyone living here: seasonal owners and the unregistered are outside it, and naturalised residents count as Spanish.
Winter direct flights from AGP
January 2026/2734 min to the airport- other countries22
- United Kingdom16
- Germany16
- Italy10
- Poland7
- France6
- Norway5
- Ireland4
- Belgium4
- Denmark4
- Czechia4
- Netherlands3
- Switzerland3
- Sweden2
- Finland2
- Portugal2
- Austria1
Destinations served at least weekly in January; checked 2026-09-17.
Paperwork and practicalities
From OpenStreetMap — an open map filled in by volunteers. Something missing there may still exist: read this as «we found this many», not «there are no more».
Articles that include this place
- Costa del Sol and Málaga beaches by water quality: from poor grades in 1990 to eight seasons of excellent everywhereGrades from the European register for every sampling point on the Málaga coast since 1990: how the count changed, the city of Málaga's beaches, Marbella's last slip, Torremolinos, fourteen municipalities, the sea at the east and west ends, and hotels in September.
- Who already lives there — and why it is not about neighboursA headcount of compatriots and a doctor and lawyer who speak your language are different things. A move runs into the second.
- Where Britons in Spain actually liveA hundred thousand Britons from the census, broken down by town. The places with the densest community and the places that live in winter are different lists.
- Andalusia's beaches by water quality: five provinces, the Bay of Algeciras and the sea from the Strait to MojácarGrades from the European register for every sampling point on Andalusia's coast since 1990: where the water was not excellent in 2025, Huelva's bad first year, the bay against the ocean in Cádiz, eight clean seasons in Málaga and Almería, and the sea on five coasts.
Where to look next
- Fuengirola3 711 €/m²
- Alhaurín de la Torre2 736 €/m²
- Benalmádena3 779 €/m²
- Badalona2 769 €/m²
- Vélez-Málaga2 745 €/m²
- Alhaurín de la Torre2 736 €/m²
- Orihuela Costa3 348 €/m²
- Guardamar del Segura3 363 €/m²
- Sanxenxo3 301 €/m²