Apartments for sale in Casares Playa

71 properties for sale in Casares Playa · € 200,000 to € 1,600,000 · median € 3,916/m²

Casares Playa is the shoreline of the municipality of Casares: a strip of coast a couple of kilometres long, between the beach of Estepona on one side and the beach of Manilva on the other, and almost everything built on it is a flat. Apartments for sale in Casares Playa start at € 200,000 and reach € 1,600,000, with the middle of the list at € 450,000 and an average built area of 121 square metres. Per square metre that works out at € 3,916, which is among the lowest figures for a walkable beach anywhere on the Costa del Sol.

What apartments for sale in Casares Playa actually are

Uniform, in the best sense. There is no mixture of styles here and no architectural surprises: the strip was developed in one long phase by a handful of builders who all read the same market, and the result is a row of gated, planted, low-rise schemes facing the water. Once you understand one of them you understand them all, and the decision comes down to position, floor and the state of the community rather than taste.

A couple of kilometres, three or four storeys

Nothing here is tall. Height limits along this part of the coast kept the blocks to a few floors, so the schemes spread sideways instead of upward and the space went into gardens. Walk through any of them and you are walking past lawn, palms, hibiscus and a pool rather than through a lobby. That is why a flat here feels less like an apartment than its paperwork suggests, and it is the main reason buyers who came to compare prices end up buying the lifestyle.

The pools and the gardens do the selling

Almost every scheme on the strip has at least one communal pool, most have gardens that are maintained properly, and several have more than one pool because the plots were large enough to allow it. For a family this changes the arithmetic completely: children can be outside and in sight without anyone crossing a road. For a letting owner it is the single feature that fills a summer week.

Why almost nothing here is a house

Beachfront land is expensive per square metre even where the market is cheap, so builders stacked. There are a few townhouses and a handful of villas in the back streets, but the overwhelming majority of what exists and what changes hands is flats, and that concentration is actually useful to a buyer: the comparables are real, the prices make sense against each other, and you are not guessing. The small number of houses are listed under houses in Casares Playa.

The geography of this strip in one paragraph each

The whole place is laid out along a single line, so there are really only three questions: which side of the road, which end of the strip, and how far back from the sand.

The beach side of the road

The motorway runs close to the water here, and the schemes between it and the beach are the ones where the promenade is a walk of a minute or two and the sea is in front of the terrace rather than in the distance. This is the premium position on the strip and it carries a premium price, although by the standards of this coast the premium is modest. It is also where the rental demand concentrates, because holidaymakers book the walk.

The inland side of the road

Immediately behind the motorway the land rises gently, and the schemes there look over the roofs of the beach side to open water beyond. The views can be better than from the front row, because height beats proximity for a horizon. The trade is the crossing: there are underpasses and bridges, but getting to the sand is a short walk with a road in it rather than a stroll, and that costs a few per cent of value and a chunk of holiday rental appeal.

The Manilva end and the Estepona end

At the western end the strip runs toward the marina and the bars of La Duquesa, which is where you go for an evening out; at the eastern end it thins toward the open beaches below Estepona Golf, which is where you go for a walk with nobody on it. Both ends are a few minutes apart by car, so neither is a commitment, but they attract different buyers and the one you prefer is usually obvious within an hour of arriving.

The beach itself, which is the point

It is wide, dark-sanded, backed by a promenade that keeps being extended, and empty by the standards of anywhere east of here. In August you can put a towel down without negotiating for the space, which is not true in Marbella and is barely true in Estepona. There are chiringuitos for lunch, a sailing club at one end and enough open sand between them to walk for an hour. A flat is bought here because of that beach, and it is worth spending a morning on it before you spend an afternoon looking at terraces.

The schemes you will actually be shown among apartments for sale in Casares Playa

Four names cover the bulk of the list, and knowing what each one is saves a day of viewings.

Casares del Sol

The largest of the planned urbanisations, set just behind the front line with substantial communal grounds, several pools and underground parking. Flats are generously sized by the standards of the period, the layouts are conventional in a way that ages well, and the community is big enough to spread its costs across a lot of owners. If you want the most floor area for the money on this strip, start here.

Bahía de Casares

A step up the hill with a step up in outlook: the schemes under this name sit high enough to see over everything in front of them, and the terraces catch the afternoon light for longer. Gardens are mature, the planting is dense and the whole place is noticeably quiet even in August. The sea is visible from more or less everywhere and reachable on foot if you do not mind a slope on the way home.

Marina de Casares

Closer to the water and more compact, with the oldest buildings on the strip and some of the gentlest asking prices in the municipality. A well-kept flat in an older scheme here is the cheapest route to a beach walk in this part of Andalucía, and some of these buildings have been refurbished to a standard that newer ones have not reached. Read the minutes carefully and this corner rewards a buyer.

The golf-side schemes above the road

Further inland, where the land flattens into fairways, a group of newer schemes overlooks the golf rather than the sea. These are the largest and best specified flats in the area, they come with the longest season because golfers travel in spring and autumn, and they are a five-minute drive from the sand. See golf property in Casares Playa.

Floors and positions in apartments for sale in Casares Playa

On a flat site the usual hierarchy applies cleanly, which makes the choice easier than it is in the hills.

Ground floors with gardens

The most sought-after band on the strip and the one that sells fastest. A private garden opening onto communal lawn is the closest thing to a house that this market offers, and for anyone with small children or a dog it is worth the premium it commands. Expect to pay more per square metre than for the identical flat two floors up.

Middle floors

The value band, as everywhere. Same pool, same gardens, same service charge, meaningfully lower price, and on a four-storey building the outlook from the middle is often indistinguishable from the top. If the purchase has to earn its keep, this is where the yield is best.

Top floors and the solariums

The top of a building on this strip frequently comes with a private roof terrace, and a roof terrace facing open water is the thing nobody can add to a flat afterwards. Those are the properties that hold value when the market softens and that let at the highest weekly rate in July. The list of them is at penthouses in Casares.

What a budget buys among apartments for sale in Casares Playa

The bottom of the list

A two-bedroom middle floor in an older scheme, walkable to the beach, with a pool and a terrace. For what a garage costs in parts of northern Europe you have a functioning holiday home on the Mediterranean, and that is not a figure of speech. These flats are also the most liquid thing on the strip, because the budget that buys them is the commonest budget in the market.

The middle

Three bedrooms, or two in a much better position: front row, or a ground floor with a real garden, or a recent build on the golf side with proper insulation and a sealed terrace. Around the middle of this list you are buying what a considerably larger sum would buy twenty minutes east, and the sea is exactly as wet.

The best of it

Penthouses with solariums and the genuinely frontline flats where the terrace looks at water and nothing else. The ceiling on this strip is low compared with the eastern municipalities, which means the finest thing available here is within reach of an ordinary budget — an unusual situation on this coast and the strongest reason to look west. The frontline is listed at beachfront in Casares Playa.

What to check before you buy apartments for sale in Casares Playa

Sea air and what it does to a building

This close to the water, salt attacks render, railings, window frames and the steel inside concrete balconies. It is not a reason to avoid an older scheme; it is a reason to ask when the façade, the balustrades and the roof waterproofing were last done, and to ask for invoices rather than assurances. A building that has been maintained on schedule is a better buy than a newer one that has not.

The community and its pool

Large gardens and multiple pools are the attraction here and they are also the cost. Ask for the quota, the reserve fund and the minutes of the last two general meetings, and look specifically for deferred work: pool plant, lift certification, irrigation, resurfacing. What has been postponed becomes a special levy, and a special levy lands on whoever owns the flat when the vote passes.

The terrace on the register

Glazed terraces are extremely common on this strip and a good number of them were never registered. Check that the property described at the land registry is the property you are standing in, including the garden boundary on a ground floor and the solarium on a top floor. Our agents on the ground will obtain the register entry and the community accounts before you travel.

Letting and living on this coast

The summer

July and August fill themselves, particularly on the beach side and particularly with a pool in the picture. A tourist licence is required and not every community permits short lets, so settle both questions before you sign anything. Our rental service takes the licence, the bookings, the changeovers and the quarterly filings off your hands.

The rest of the year

This is where the golf side earns its premium: spring and autumn bookings come from players, not swimmers, and they fill the months that empty every beach flat on the coast. Winter is quiet here, genuinely quiet, which is either the attraction or the drawback depending on why you came. The supermarkets, the health centre and the schools all stay open, and Estepona is a quarter of an hour away for everything else.

Apartments for sale in Casares Playa — where to go next

On this strip: beachfront, golf, houses and plots, with everything together on property in Casares Playa.

One step wider, the whole municipality including the white village inland sits on apartments in Casares and property for sale in Casares. Next door to the west, Manilva is cheaper again; to the east, Estepona is busier and dearer. If the right flat is not on this list today, the property alarm will mail you the morning it appears.

Answers about apartments in Casares Playa