Calahonda · New build & off-plan
New build in Calahonda is infill, not a phased release
Sitio de Calahonda was drawn on a town scale in the 1960s and has been filled in ever since, so new construction here is infill: a plot on the upper terraces, or the demolition and rebuild of an early bungalow. Whatever is built joins the conservation entity from the first deed.
- Municipality
- Mijas
- Province
- Málaga
- Part of
- Mijas
The honest starting point is that this address does not behave like an off-plan market. There is no marketing suite at the entrance, no phase two, no reservation list. What exists instead is a consolidated urbanisation with a finite number of remaining plots on the upper terraces and a large stock of low, flat-roofed houses from the earliest phase along the original avenue, some of which are now worth more as a site than as a building. Both routes end at the same counter: the Ayuntamiento de Mijas, which issues a certificate of the planning regime applying to a specific plot and runs the licence procedures. Ask for that certificate before you agree a price, not after the architect has drawn something.
The second thing that separates a new home here from a new home two municipalities west is what it inherits on completion. Sitio de Calahonda is maintained by an Entidad Urbanística de Conservación whose statutes were approved by the Ayuntamiento and registered with the Junta de Andalucía, and membership attaches to every owner. A brand-new house on an infill plot does not arrive outside that arrangement; it joins it, alongside whatever community is created for the building itself. Budget for both from the first year rather than discovering the second one when a levy notice appears in a language you have not yet learned to read.
What is actually under construction here
Two things, and both are small. The first is individual plots on the upper terraces, where the slope steepens and the original scheme left land that was harder to build. These come to market one at a time and are bought by people who want to design rather than choose. The second is replacement: the earliest phase of the urbanisation is low, white and horizontal — flat-roofed bungalows and courtyard houses set close to the ground along the original avenue — and a proportion of that stock is now old enough that a buyer is purchasing the plot and the permission rather than the house.
What you will not find here is the phased coastal release with a show flat and a completion date, which in this municipality is concentrated on other parts of the Mijas coast and in the valley. Paula says so plainly rather than pretending otherwise, and where a genuine scheme is selling nearby at the time you ask, she names it then — a list published on a page would be out of date before it was read. If a warranty, a lift and underground parking are the point, the honest answer is that the right stock exists in Mijas but not always inside this perimeter.
| Occupancy procedure in Mijas | Mijas brings a finished building into use through a Declaración Responsable de Ocupación y/o Utilización 2026-08-26 |
|---|---|
| Deposit protection | Advance payments must be guaranteed and held separately under Ley 38/1999, as amended by Ley 20/2015 2026-08-26 |
| Entity membership on completion | Membership of the Sitio de Calahonda conservation entity is obligatory for every owner, new build included 2026-08-26 |
| Drainage network | Local treatment plants were superseded in 1984 by the coast-wide system now run by Acosol 2026-08-26 |
How this runs, step by step
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Step 1
Certify the plot regime first
Specific to Mijas
Mijas issues a Certificado Administrativo de Régimen Aplicable, a written statement of the planning regime attached to a specific parcel. On an infill plot or a demolition site inside this urbanisation, that document is the difference between a buildable idea and an expensive garden. Request it during the reservation period, and read it with your architect rather than alone.
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Step 2
Confirm the entity obligation applies
Specific to Mijas
Ask, in writing, what the conservation entity will charge the finished unit and on what basis it is apportioned. Membership is obligatory for every owner inside Sitio de Calahonda, so the answer is never nil, and a developer's service-charge estimate that omits it is describing a different urbanisation from the one you are buying into.
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Step 3
See the guarantee, not the promise
Money paid before a home is finished must be guaranteed by an insurance policy or bank guarantee and held in an account separate from the developer's other funds, under Ley 38/1999 as amended by Ley 20/2015. Ask to see the policy number and the account, and have your lawyer verify both. A reassuring conversation is not a guarantee.
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Step 4
Read the memoria de calidades
The specification document, not the render, is the contract. Look for glazing, insulation, air conditioning, the depth of the terrace and whether a garage space and storeroom are included or sold separately. On a hillside plot also ask what retaining and drainage works are inside the price, because on these slopes that is a real number, not a detail.
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Step 5
Verify services and drainage
Specific to Mijas
The urbanisation treated its own waste water in small local plants until 1984, when it was connected to the coast-wide system now operated by Acosol. On an individual plot, have the architect confirm the mains water and foul connections and the surface-water route down the slope. Autumn run-off is the recurring maintenance theme on this hillside, and it is cheapest to solve on paper.
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Step 6
Occupancy declaration, then keys
Specific to Mijas
Mijas uses a Declaración Responsable de Ocupación y/o Utilización for bringing a finished building into use. Make the notary date conditional on that step being complete, then register the new description of the property and only then transfer utilities. Taking keys before the paperwork is closed transfers the problem from the builder to you.
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A newly built home is a different tax animal from a resale here: new-build carries IVA plus stamp duty rather than the Andalucían transfer tax, and your lawyer confirms the current position in writing before you commit. Then add the architect, the technical architect, the municipal licence, and on these slopes the retaining and drainage works. Finally, add the running cost this address carries for good: the conservation levy for the urbanisation and the community charge for your own building. A build budget that stops at the builder's quotation is not a budget.
GUIDE An indication of where this area sits, not a valuation of any particular home. Ask Paula for a figure you can act on.
Questions about this in Calahonda
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Are large off-plan schemes released inside Sitio de Calahonda?
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Rarely, and that is a structural fact rather than a market mood. The urbanisation was laid out decades ago and has been built out steadily since, so the land that remains is scattered rather than assembled. What appears instead is a single building on a single plot, or a replacement of an older house. Larger phased developments in this municipality are found elsewhere on the Mijas coast and in the valley behind it.
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Does a brand-new home here still pay the conservation levy?
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Yes. The conservation entity maintains the shared fabric of the whole urbanisation — roads, lighting, gardens, drainage — and membership attaches to ownership rather than to the age of the building. A new house on an infill plot uses the same streets as a house from the first phase and contributes on the same basis. Ask the developer for the expected charge in writing, and treat any answer of nil as a reason to keep asking.
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What does replacing an early Calahonda bungalow involve?
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It starts as a planning question, not a design one. Establish what the plot is allowed to carry today by obtaining the municipal certificate of applicable regime, because a house from the first phase was often built to different parameters from those now in force. Then price demolition, retaining works on a sloping site, and the services connection. Only after those three numbers exist does the architect's drawing become a project rather than a hope.
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