The City Council closes a year marked by the liquidation of the inherited debt and a historic tax reduction

The Consistory faces 2026 with a record budget, approved in time and form, which prioritizes the needs of citizens and social groups.

The mayor of Estepona, José María García Urbano, today highlighted during the last Municipal Plenary of the year the “historic milestone” achieved in the city in this 2025, once the entire 300 million debt inherited by the current government team in 2011 from previous governments has been liquidated. Obtaining this ‘zero debt’ has made it possible to carry out “the largest tax cut in the history of the city”, which has materialized in the receipt of the Real Estate Tax (IBI) this year, with an average reduction of 20%, and will do so again in 2026.

The alderman has highlighted how this complete amortization of the debt, made in record time, has been possible thanks to a responsible management of resources, with a significant containment of expenditure, which already led to implement cuts in superfluous expenses that had kept predecessor mayors. These expenses had placed Estepona at the head of the most indebted municipalities in Spain, with a debt of 4,600 euros per inhabitant. This financial burden has meant that since 2011 it has had to spend an average of 60,000 euros per day to pay this debt.

The 2026 will be the first budget in which no amounts have to be allocated to the debt, resources that now, as announced by García Urbano, will result in the reinforcement of attention to citizens. Next year’s accounts, which have already been approved, reach 132 million euros, and contemplate a new record of investments up to 27 million.

Another of the most outstanding municipal initiatives of this year, in the words of the mayor, has been the rescue of the concession of the La Viña parking lot, for its integration into the municipal network of low-cost parking lots in the city, which now totals more than 2,300 spaces.

In terms of housing, the Vimpyca Foundation, which acquired the land on Camino de Cortes made available by the City Council, has begun the procedures for the construction of more than one hundred subsidized housing units (VPOs). In addition, the Consistory gave the green light in the November plenary session to the initial approval of the modification of a partial plan for the urban development of a plot of 655,250 square meters in the area of Arroyo Vaquero, where 683 free income housing units can be built, which must be accompanied by another 518 subsidized housing units (VPO).

Also this year the ‘Brigada de Barrios’ (Neighborhood Brigade) has been created and put into operation, with the aim of improving and reinforcing the maintenance of these residential and commercial areas of the city. Composed permanently by 10 workers, this brigade remains in each of the neighborhoods where it is acting until the completion of its preparation. Its tasks range from masonry work, painting and road signs, to electricity, plumbing, gardening, removal of architectural barriers, paving and sidewalks.

For this reason, workers from other municipal services are being added to the “Neighborhood Brigade” according to the specific needs of each of these residential and commercial areas in the urban and suburban areas.

As a result of responsible and compliant economic management, this City Council accumulates consecutive years of all economic magnitudes in positive, with historical figures in this area. Specifically, for the present and next fiscal year, budget settlements with surpluses of more than 30 million euros are expected.