Mijas Golf: the valley of Los Lagos and Los Olivos

The valley sits behind Fuengirola, between the coastal build-up and the wall of the Sierra de Mijas, and it exists because of the golf. Los Lagos came first, opened in 1976 across roughly fifty-two hectares of gently undulating ground with nine lakes that bring water into play on eleven of the eighteen holes. Los Olivos followed in 1984 on tighter, hillier terrain of about forty hectares, with smaller and more sloping greens and heavy bunkering, and it was remodelled in the 2000 to 2001 season. Housing arrived around the fairways rather than the other way round.

What is for sale is mostly low-rise: apartment and townhouse communities backing onto the courses, a smaller number of detached villas on individual plots, and a scattering of older houses that predate the second course. The best of it faces a fairway with the sierra behind; the least considered backs onto a service road. Because the valley filled in over three decades, specification varies wildly between neighbouring communities — underfloor heating and a lift in one, a single-glazed 1980s townhouse with a spiral stair in the next.

Life here is quiet and entirely car-based. There is no town centre, no promenade and no parade of shops beyond what the clubhouses and a few local bars provide; Fuengirola supplies the supermarkets, the schools, the station and the beach, and Mijas Pueblo the Sunday lunch. That is the caveat and it is a real one: a resident who does not play golf can find the valley very still by January. The market read is that demand here is specific rather than broad — buyers arrive because of the two courses, and they price the address accordingly.

The valley reads as three building generations. Late 1970s and 1980s townhouses in a plain Andalusian idiom — white render, tiled roofs, small windows, spiral stairs to a solarium — sit closest to the older course. The 1990s brought larger apartment communities with communal pools, gardens and, in the better schemes, garage levels. The 2000s added blocks with lifts, wider glazing and terraces designed as outdoor rooms. Detached villas are scattered rather than gathered, and the plots are generous by coastal standards because land here was cheaper than frontline land. Renovation stock is abundant and often untouched since first sale.

In February the two clubhouses are the social centre and very nearly the only one: coffee after nine holes, a menu at lunch, and quiet by nine in the evening. Residents drive down to Fuengirola for the supermarket, the health centre and the train, and up to Mijas Pueblo for a Sunday table with a view. The school run leaves the valley entirely. There are no pavements to speak of between communities, so walking means walking the course perimeter roads. The sound is sprinklers, birds and the occasional buggy.

It suits golfers who want to walk to a first tee, buyers who prefer a green outlook to a sea view, and owners who are content to drive for everything else. Retired couples and semi-retired second-home owners make up most of the resident pool. It does not suit anyone who wants a village on the doorstep, anyone relying on public transport, or a family that wants children to reach friends, shops and a beach without being driven there.