relocoast
Panorama of white village of Mijas. Costa del Sol, Andalusia. Spain
Costa del Sol · Occidental, Málaga

Mijas

4Winter liveability / 5To the sea 6.3 kmTo the airport 34 min · AGPPer m² 3 231

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.

Worth a trip nearby
  • Fuengirola · 8 kmthe train to Málaga and the airport, and the hospital
  • Marbella · 30 kmthe old town and Puerto Banús
  • Málaga · 34 kmairport, station, museums
Resalesource
3 231€/m²
+7.9% price growth yoy
appraised value, Ministerio de Vivienda
New build
3 302€/m²
Rent, 2 bed
1160€/mo
Populationsource
94 320
Foreign residents 32.5%
Winter humidity
72%
damp risk without heating
Sunshine hours per year
2 870h
Rent, 1 bed
830€/mo
International schools
1
Internet
450Mbps

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

Nearest hospitalsource
34min by car
Hospital Marítimo de Torremolinos
Torremolinos · 22.8 km · public
Terrainsource
steep
Centre at 414 m, 434 m of elevation change
over 80 m of change — stairs and switchbacks; hard without a car or a lift
Car-freeour rating
2/5
hard without a car
No rail station

Where from: the Ministry of Health hospital catalogue, road time · elevations from the Copernicus terrain model · ratings for car-free and hospital minutes are ours.

Sea temperature

4 months above 20 °C
16
J
15
F
15
M
16
A
18
M
20
J
23
J
24
A
22
S
20
O
18
N
16
D

Tourist load

1
J
1
F
2
M
2
A
3
M
4
J
5
J
5
A
4
S
3
O
2
N
2
D

On the map

What tenants actually pay

sourced
Median
615€/mo
75th percentile
763€/mo
Flat size
81

This 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 bedroom830/mo
2 bedrooms1 160/mo
3 bedrooms1 510/mo
Median of active leases, 2024615/mo

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

estimate

International 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.

5

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
Foreign residents on the padrón
32.5%
30,618 of 94,320
  • United Kingdom7 541
  • Morocco2 438
  • Italy1 788
  • Ukraine1 358
  • Argentina1 127
  • Russia1 111
  • Colombia1 095
  • Germany980
Communities and services in their language
  • 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

Appointment for the TIE· Málagafrom reports
2
The station on Avenida de Andalucía releases a batch of slots on Mondays around 8:30, for 30 to 45 days ahead; the rest of the week only leftovers remain. The wait is four to eight weeks and getting in is very hard: lawyers describe weeks on end with no free slots at all. Marbella, Fuengirola and Torremolinos have their own points, with lighter load.
1 — no slots for weeks, 5 — freely available. Checked 2026-09-17

Where to look next

Nearby on the same coast
Cheaper with the same sea
Similar price, other coasts
Compare with Conil de la Frontera
Verified: 2026-09-17 · where the data comes from