Top floor apartments for sale in Benahavís

4 properties for sale in Benahavís · € 225,000 to € 695,000 · median € 5,463/m²

There are 4 top floor apartments for sale in Benahavís, they average 90 square metres — the smallest flats in the municipality — and they ask € 5,463 per square metre, the highest figure of any band here. Those two numbers are the same fact stated twice, and the first thing this page has to do is explain why. Prices run from € 225,000 to € 695,000, with the middle of the list at € 625,000.

Why the per-metre figure here is the steepest in the municipality

Because the flats are small, not because they are expensive. A kitchen, a bathroom, an entrance hall, a boiler and a terrace door cost roughly the same whether the flat around them is seventy square metres or a hundred and seventy, and spreading that fixed content over less floor area pushes the rate per metre up. It happens in every market in the world and it is why the figure per square metre is a poor way to compare flats of different sizes.

What to compare instead

Compare absolute prices for what you actually need. If two bedrooms and a terrace with a valley view is the requirement, the question is what that costs in this municipality — and here the answer starts below a quarter of a million, which is the cheapest route into Benahavís by any door. That is worth holding onto, because the municipality has a reputation for the hillside estates above the village and almost none for the small flat with a long view, which is the thing most buyers can actually afford here. The rate per metre is a statistic about geometry rather than about value, and on a page of small flats it will always look alarming next to a list of large ones.

And why a top floor costs less than a penthouse

A penthouse has a private roof terrace; a top floor does not. That is the only difference between the two bands and it is worth a great deal of money. If a solarium is central to how you would live, buy one and pay for it, because a roof cannot be added to a finished building afterwards — see penthouses in Benahavís. If it is not, a top floor offers the same light, the same quiet and frequently the same view for less.

What the top floor apartments for sale in Benahavís give you

The view, which comes with the contour

This is the hillside point and it applies to every band in the municipality. The land falls away in front of the buildings, so the outlook belongs to the altitude of the scheme rather than to the floor you buy on — and a top floor on a modest level sees what a villa a little higher up sees. You are not paying for the view with the floor number; you are getting it with the address.

Nobody above you

Flats here are tiled throughout with almost nothing to absorb sound, so footsteps, chairs and a dropped pan all travel downwards. Owners who have spent a few years under somebody else's living room go straight to this band on their next purchase. It is the argument for a top floor that nobody finds persuasive in advance and everybody finds obvious afterwards.

Light from above the rooflines

On a low-rise hillside the top floor is looking at sky rather than at the neighbours' terraces, and the difference in a living room through the winter is considerable. South and south-west aspects hold the sun into the evening up here; a terrace facing north behind a ridge can be in shade for weeks in midwinter, and that is worth establishing on the viewing rather than on the plan.

The altitude, which softens the usual complaint

On the coast a top floor under a flat roof in August is the hottest flat in the building. A few hundred metres up, the evenings cool faster and the nights are several degrees kinder, so the penalty that makes buyers nervous about this band at sea level is much milder here. It is one of the genuine advantages of looking for a top floor in the hills rather than on the shore.

The terrace, and how much of it there is

On a small flat the terrace is not an extra; it is the living room for eight months of the year. In these hills the schemes were drawn when land was inexpensive, so even the modest flats frequently came with a terrace deep enough for a proper table rather than the ledge a coastal block of the same price would offer. Measure it, work out where the shade falls at lunchtime, and judge the flat on the total of inside and outside rather than on the built area alone — because that is how you will actually use it, and because the figure in the particulars counts only the half with a roof over it.

What to check before buying top floor apartments for sale in Benahavís

What is directly above the ceiling

The question that decides whether a top floor is a bargain or a mistake. A pitched tiled roof with a ventilated void behaves completely differently from a flat slab with the insulation standards of the nineties. Ask what the construction is, look at the air-conditioning provision, and if the trip allows, stand in the living room at four in the afternoon in high summer rather than at eleven on a spring morning.

When the roof was last renewed

You are the owner who finds out first when a roof fails. Ask when the waterproofing was done, whether any leak appears in the minutes of the general meetings, and who paid for the last repair. On a hillside there is a second question behind it: a stepped building has roofs at several levels, and water from the slope and from the terraces above has to find a way past yours. Look at the outlets and the parapets.

Water pressure, which is sharpest here

Pressure falls as you climb a building and it is already a variable at altitude, so the top floor of a hillside scheme is the worst case in the municipality. Run a tap and a shower while you are in the flat, and ask whether the scheme has a pump and a storage tank. This is the thing owners on upper floors up here complain about most, and it is free to test on a viewing.

The lift, and how many flights without one

A good number of the older blocks in these hills have no lift, and on a slope the approach from the parking may add an outdoor staircase on top of the internal one. On the top floor that is the longest climb in the building, every time, with the shopping. Count the steps yourself rather than reading a floor number, and establish where the lift stops if there is one — on a hillside scheme the garage can be two levels above or below the flat.

Heating, because you will use it

These hills are cooler than the coast all year. Establish what the heating actually is, whether the floors are heated, what fuel runs it and what a winter month costs. A small flat is cheap to heat, which is one of the quiet advantages of this page — but a flat with no heating at all is a summer flat whatever the particulars suggest.

What the top floor apartments for sale in Benahavís are good for

A bolthole

Two bedrooms, a terrace with the valley in front of it, a communal pool below and nothing to maintain while you are away. For an owner who comes for long weekends and a few weeks in summer, the size is the feature rather than the compromise: there is less to clean, less to heat, less to worry about and a lower quota to pay.

The cheapest way into the address

Benahavís is known for estates and large houses, and the reputation puts people off before they look. The bottom of this page is a flat in a gated scheme with a pool and a view, at a figure that buys nothing at all in the municipality next door. For a first purchase in these hills it is the obvious move and it is routinely overlooked.

A letting unit

Small flats let well here because the golf season fills spring and autumn and the cooler evenings fill high summer, and a two-bedroom is what a pair of players or a couple actually books. A tourist licence is required and several estates do not permit short stays at all, so establish both before you buy on the strength of a projection. The licensing, the bookings and the tax returns are what our rental service exists to carry.

Where the top floor apartments for sale in Benahavís are

The long golf hillside

Where almost all of this band sits, on the planted slope above Puerto Banús, in schemes spanning four decades. The upper levels of the lower urbanisations are the sweet spot: open outlook, manageable access, and nothing like the figures the ridge above asks. Everything in that area is gathered under La Quinta.

The courses to the west

Around the layouts on the Ronda road, on gentler ground, with the village and San Pedro both minutes away and clubhouses that stay open through the winter. For anybody intending to be here all year rather than in August, this is the practical corner of the municipality. See golf property in Benahavís.

The resort valley and the village

Down where the municipality narrows toward the sea, the gated schemes behind the landmark hotel carry the newest flats and the most services; up around the white village, the least expensive, with views into the valley rather than out to sea and the one place in these hills where you can walk to dinner.

The honest drawback

Three properties is not a market

It is a shortlist, and no amount of value changes that. If you need to buy within a season this page will not deliver on its own, and the sensible approach is to watch it while looking at the band immediately below. Tell an agent what you want rather than waiting for a listing — in a category this thin, that is how the flats are actually found.

Where to look in the meantime

The middle floors in the same schemes are far more numerous, cost less per square metre and on a stepped building frequently have the identical outlook: middle floor apartments in Benahavís. For most buyers drawn to this page, that list is where the realistic purchase is, and the only thing given up is the empty space overhead, which costs nothing and is worth less than most buyers assume.

And the resale view

This band sells more slowly than the ones either side of it, because fewer buyers search for it by name — which is exactly why it is cheap. That works for you going in and against you coming out, so buy the roof you trust, the aspect you like and the lift you want rather than the cheapest flat available.

Top floor apartments for sale in Benahavís — where to go next

By floor within the municipality: penthouses if the roof terrace is the point, middle floor apartments for the same view with more choice, and ground floor apartments if a garden suits you better. Every flat in the municipality, on every level, sits together under apartments in Benahavís.

If stairs or neighbours are the real question, the next step is a townhouse with its own front door, and beyond that houses, with everything in the municipality on property for sale in Benahavís. Elsewhere this band is at top floor apartments across the coast and Marbella. New schemes, where the roof is under guarantee and the lift reaches the garage, are on new developments, and our agents here will ask the administrator about the roof before you travel. With a band this thin, the property alarm is the only sensible way to watch it.

Answers about top floor apartments in Benahavís