Penthouses for sale in Benahavís

48 properties for sale in Benahavís · € 325,000 to € 3,500,000 · median € 5,795/m²

Penthouses for sale in Benahavís carry private terraces on a scale the coast does not match: 247 square metres on average, which is more outside space than a good number of villas on this coast have garden. There are 48 of them, from € 325,000 to € 3,500,000, with the middle of the list at € 799,000, an average built area of 171 square metres and € 5,795 per square metre.

What you are really buying in penthouses for sale in Benahavís

Here is the honest version, and it is different from the coast. On flat ground a penthouse buys the view as well as the roof, because the floors below it look at the building opposite. On a mountainside the view comes with the contour line rather than the floor number — the second floor of a stepped block sees very nearly what the top floor sees. So in this municipality you are buying the terrace, not the outlook. If the terrace is not central to how you intend to live, the money is better spent one or two floors down.

Why the terraces are so large

Land in these hills was inexpensive when the schemes were laid out, and the buildings were drawn generously as a result: broad footprints, staggered levels and roofs that run the width of the block. Add the stepped construction, where each level sets back from the one below, and the top floor inherits a roof that would be two flats' worth of space on the coast. The figures at the head of this page are not a quirk of the current stock; they are how this municipality was built.

What that much space actually allows

At this size a solarium stops being a sun deck and becomes a series of rooms without walls: a dining area in shade, a sitting area facing the valley, a plunge pool, an outdoor kitchen, planting in beds rather than pots. A good number of the properties on this page already have most of that installed. It is why owners here spend the evening upstairs rather than inside for eight months of the year, and why a terrace of this size changes what the flat beneath it needs to be — three bedrooms and somewhere to cook, rather than a house.

The altitude, which extends the season

A few hundred metres up, the evenings are cooler than at sea level and the nights cool faster, which makes a terrace comfortable in July and August when a coastal roof is still giving off heat at ten at night. It also softens the usual penthouse complaint: the top floor under a flat roof is the hottest flat in any building, and up here that is a great deal less punishing than it is on the shore.

Where the penthouses for sale in Benahavís are

The long golf hillside

The deepest supply, on the planted slope above Puerto Banús, with schemes from four decades and the widest price range within a single address. The upper levels of the lower urbanisations are where the best combination sits: a large terrace, an open valley in front, and nothing like the figures the ridge above asks. Everything there is on La Quinta.

The resort valley near the coast

Where the municipality narrows toward the sea, the gated schemes between the golf courses and the landmark hotel carry the newest penthouses in the municipality and the most services — spa, restaurants, concierge — with the beach a few minutes downhill. Terraces here are more formally landscaped and the service charges are the highest in the municipality.

The courses on the western side

Around the layouts on the Ronda road, on kinder ground, with the village and San Pedro both minutes away and clubhouses that stay open through the winter. For anyone intending to be here all year rather than in August, this is the practical corner, and the penthouses are the least expensive in the municipality with a proper solarium.

Around the village

The gentlest end of this market, with terraces looking into the valley rather than out to sea, and the one place in these hills where you can leave the car and walk to dinner. For a buyer who wants the roof and does not need the bay in the frame, the value here is considerable.

What a budget buys among penthouses for sale in Benahavís

At the entry level

A two-bedroom top floor in an older scheme with a solarium you could hold a party on, a communal pool below and the valley in front. The bathrooms will be of their period and the roof will want asking about. The terrace will be larger than anything the same money buys on the coast, and nothing will ever be built in front of it, because almost everything between these slopes and the sea is either developed already or protected.

Around the middle

Three bedrooms, or two with a wrapping terrace on a corner, in an established golf urbanisation with a community that has money in the bank. This is the deepest part of the list, and at this level the decision is about which way the terrace faces and whether there is shade on it rather than about affordability.

At the upper end

Duplex penthouses and the newer resort properties: underfloor heating, sealed terraces, lifts reaching the garage, outdoor kitchens and plunge pools already installed, and glass balustrades so the valley is visible from a chair. Compare these honestly against a small villa in the same municipality — the terrace is larger than many villa gardens, nobody has to mow it, and the estate looks after everything beyond your own front door.

Almost everything here is a resale

What that means for the roof

Only a handful of the properties on this page are new, so the waterproofing beneath most of these terraces has been in service for a long time. Below the tiles is a membrane, and it is the only thing between the weather and the flat underneath. It has a working life, it is damaged by planters and by anything screwed into the surface, and when it fails the damage shows up in somebody else's ceiling first. Ask when it was last renewed and whether any leak has been recorded.

Who is responsible for it

The roof of a building is normally a communal element, while a solarium granted for a single owner's use sits in a grey area that the community statutes may resolve either way. Establish in writing, before you offer, whether the membrane under your terrace is the community's responsibility or yours. On a terrace of this size the difference is a serious figure.

Water from the slope above

This is the hillside wrinkle. A stepped building has roofs at several levels, and in a heavy autumn downpour water from the slope, the communal planting and the terraces above all has to find a way past your floor. Look at the outlets, the channels and the parapets, and ask the administrator what happened in the last serious storm. Drainage designed as an afterthought is the most expensive mistake in these hills.

Living on a roof at this altitude

Summer, which is the point

From May into October the terrace is the property. Morning sun on one side, shade somewhere by lunchtime if the thing was designed properly, and an evening when the air comes down the valley and the lights of the coast appear below you. This is the experience people buy in this municipality and it is not available anywhere on the shoreline at the same price.

Winter, honestly

Up here January is genuinely cold in the evening and a solarium is not a winter room. The flat beneath it needs proper heating and you will use it — ask what the system is, whether the floors are heated, what fuel runs it and what a winter month costs. A penthouse in these hills without real heating is a summer property whatever the particulars say.

Wind, and what is fixed down

A roof at altitude is exposed, and the easterly can blow for days at a stretch. Look at how the pergola, the awning and the screens are anchored, and whether the community approved them, because an unauthorised structure that comes loose is both a liability and an argument. Check also the parapet height, which on older buildings is sometimes lower than a buyer with small children would want.

Which way the terrace faces

On a hillside this decides how many months of the year the space is worth having. South and south-west terraces take the long evenings and hold warmth well into October, and they are the ones people remember from a viewing. East-facing roofs get a spectacular sunrise over the sea and lose the sun by early afternoon, which on a terrace you intend to eat dinner on is the wrong way round. A roof tucked behind a ridge to the north can be in shade for weeks in midwinter. Stand up there at the hour you would actually use it, and if the trip allows, go once in January as well as once in June — the same terrace on the same hillside is two different propositions in those two months.

What to check before buying penthouses for sale in Benahavís

How the terrace appears on the title

It may be registered as part of the property, granted as a right of exclusive use over a communal roof, or not mentioned at all. The three are legally different and they govern what you own, what you may install up there and what the next buyer will accept. This is the first document to ask for and the one most buyers never see.

The statutes, before the plunge pool

Pergolas, outdoor kitchens, jacuzzis, plunge pools, glass screens and anything fixed into the surface are governed by the community rules and sometimes by the town hall too, and several estates here are strict about exterior appearance and restrict building work in summer. If something up there was never approved, treat it as a liability rather than a feature.

How you get up there

An internal staircase is private and takes floor area from the flat. An outdoor flight on a hillside block may run along a path the neighbours also use, which is private in February and less so in August. A hatch and a ladder exist in older buildings and make a terrace far less usable than photographs suggest. Walk it carrying something before you decide what the space is worth, and check whether the lift reaches your level at all.

The community accounts and the quota

A hillside estate maintains terraced gardens, pumped irrigation, retaining walls, private roads, lighting and often security, so the charge is higher than a coastal equivalent. Ask what it is, what the reserve fund holds and what the last two general meetings decided — and look specifically for anything concerning roofs. Our agents here will assemble the title, the statutes and the accounts before you travel.

Penthouses for sale in Benahavís — where to go next

By floor within the municipality: top floor apartments for the light without the roof, middle floor apartments for the same view at less, and ground floor apartments if a garden suits you better. The whole band is on apartments in Benahavís.

If the terrace is really a substitute for a garden, compare houses and detached villas at the same money, with the top of the municipality on luxury property and the golf-side schemes on golf property. Everything together is on property for sale in Benahavís. Elsewhere, this category is at penthouses and Marbella, the newest schemes on new developments. If letting is part of the plan, our rental service will tell you what the golf season actually pays — and because a building has only as many penthouses as it was built with, the property alarm is the right way to watch this page.

Answers about penthouses in Benahavís