El Paraíso · New build & off-plan
New build in El Paraíso starts with a retaining wall
Nothing phased is built inside a valley that was fully drawn around a course opened in 1973. New build here is a replacement villa on an existing terraced plot, which leaves Estepona's declaración responsable route the moment it changes ocupación, altura or edificabilidad and becomes a licencia instead.
- Municipality
- Estepona
- Province
- Málaga
- Part of
- Estepona
The ground decides the budget before the architect does. Plots in this valley sit on terraces cut half a century ago, so a replacement house arrives with a set of costs that a flat coastal site never generates: retaining walls that must be surveyed and often rebuilt, a drainage run that has to take a February storm off the terrace above, and an access that cannot be moved because it was drawn around eighteen holes in 1973. Ask the promoter to show you the ground-works package priced separately from the building. If the two are quoted as one figure, nobody has looked properly at the slope yet.
The second question is whether the brochure is describing this valley at all. El Paraíso is a name that travels: schemes on neighbouring land use it because it reads well, and a plot that is genuinely a ten-minute drive from the 1973 course is a different address with a different resale. Put the site on a map against the course and the clubhouse before you reserve anything. That is not pedantry — a buyer three years from now will make exactly the same check, and whatever they conclude then is what your home is worth.
What is actually being built here, and what is not
The honest position is that this valley produces single houses. It was laid out around a course that opened in 1973 and it has no reserve of development land inside it, so what reaches the market as new build is a demolition and rebuild on an existing terrace, or occasionally two units where one stood. Paula does not maintain a list of named launches for El Paraíso, because there is rarely one to maintain, and a page that invented one would be worth less than this sentence.
That changes what due diligence means. On a phased scheme the questions are about the promoter's balance sheet and which phase you are in. Here they are about one plot, one builder and one file: whether the licence exists at the Ayuntamiento de Estepona for the house in the drawings, whether the aval or insurance policy required by Ley 20/2015 has actually been issued in your name, and which document the municipality will accept as the occupation title, given that Estepona runs occupation and use of buildings through a declaración responsable procedure.
The upside of a one-house build is that the product is yours and the neighbours are already established. The exposure is that a single delay lands entirely on you, and the ground is the likeliest source of one. Anyone who has priced the earthworks properly before reserving has removed most of the risk this page exists to describe.
| Which route a rebuild takes | Estepona reserves the licence for new plant and for reforms that alter ocupación, altura or edificabilidad, and processes the occupation or use of buildings as one of three declaración responsable procedures enabled on 5 June 2020. 2026-08-27 |
|---|---|
| Cover on advance payments | Ley 20/2015 requires sums advanced by a purchaser during construction to be held separately and secured by an insurance policy or, as an alternative, a financial guarantee. 2026-08-27 |
| The warranty clocks after delivery | Ley 38/1999 de Ordenación de la Edificación sets separate warranty periods running from completion for finishes, for habitability elements and for structural defects. 2026-08-27 |
| The address the club registers | El Paraíso Golf gives its address as Urb. El Paraíso, Ctra de Cádiz km 167, Estepona, which is the fixed reference point against which any promotion using the name should be located. 2026-08-27 |
How this runs, step by step
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Step 1
Locate the plot against the course
Specific to Estepona
Before anything else, put the site on a map beside the clubhouse at Ctra de Cádiz km 167 and walk the distance. Some promotions carrying this name sit on the valley's own terraces; others sit on land nearby that reads better in a brochure than on a deed. Both may be good buys. They are not the same address, and only one of them is this one.
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Step 2
Classify the works with the Ayuntamiento
Specific to Estepona
Estepona reserves the licence for new plant and for reforms that alter ocupación, altura or edificabilidad. A demolition and rebuild is therefore a licence file, not the simplified route an interior refit would take, and the file lives at the Ayuntamiento rather than with the promoter. Your lawyer asks to see it, dated and stamped, before any money leaves your account.
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Step 3
Price the ground before the house
Ask for two numbers, not one: earthworks, retaining structures, drainage and services on one side, and the building on the other. On a terraced plot the first number is where the surprises live, and a promoter who will not separate them is either optimistic or has not commissioned the geotechnical study yet. Neither is a reason to reserve.
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Step 4
Secure the money on a single build
Sums paid before delivery must be kept apart from the promoter's own funds and covered by an insurance policy or a financial guarantee, under Ley 20/2015 and the Ley 38/1999 lineage behind it. On a one-house promotion there is no phase to absorb a failure, so read the actual policy or aval issued in your name, with your plot on it, rather than a contract clause promising one.
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Step 5
Hold out for the occupation title
Specific to Estepona
Estepona processes the occupation and use of buildings as one of its declaración responsable procedures, so the paper that lets you live in the house may not look like the classic certificate a buyer expects. Ask your lawyer exactly which document the Ayuntamiento will accept for your build, and do not sign at the notary until it exists in the form the municipality actually requires.
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Step 6
Budget the canopy you did not inherit
A new house in this valley stands among gardens that have had fifty years to grow, and it will look raw beside them for a decade unless the landscaping budget is serious. Mature specimens, irrigation and shade structures are not delivered by the promoter and are not small. Decide before you sign whether you are funding that or accepting the contrast.
A new building is taxed differently from a resale in Andalucía, so expect the new-build treatment rather than the transfer tax a second-hand villa attracts, and have your lawyer confirm it in writing for your unit. Then add the items a brochure rarely separates: earthworks and retaining structures, services brought to a terrace laid out fifty years ago, the notary and registry on a new declaration of works, and the landscaping that makes the house sit properly among its grown neighbours. El Paraíso sits above Atalaya and below the New Golden Mile, and a rebuild is priced from the plot upward.
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 El Paraíso
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Why do the ground works cost more than the house?
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They often do not, but they are the part nobody has priced. Plots here sit on terraces cut in the late sixties and early seventies, so a rebuild usually involves inspecting and frequently replacing retaining structures, rerouting drainage that has to cope with water arriving from the terrace above, and bringing services to a position fixed by roads drawn around the golf course. None of that is visible in a render. Ask for the earthworks quoted as its own line, and treat a refusal as an answer.
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Who signs off that my new house may be occupied?
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The Ayuntamiento de Estepona, but not necessarily in the form buyers expect. Since June 2020 the municipality has handled the occupation and use of buildings as one of three declaración responsable procedures, alongside minor works and technical intervention in existing buildings. So the document that lawfully lets you move in may be a responsible declaration accepted by the town hall rather than a classic certificate handed over by the promoter. Ask your lawyer to name the exact document for your build and to confirm it exists before the notary date.
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Should I trust a brochure that says El Paraíso?
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Trust the map, not the cover. The name attaches to a valley whose fixed point is the clubhouse at Ctra de Cádiz km 167, and a scheme genuinely inside it will be a short walk or a very short drive from there. Promotions on neighbouring land use the name because it carries well, which is legitimate marketing rather than deception, but it produces a different daily life and a different resale story. Measure the distance yourself, once, and then decide with the number in front of you.
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