Riviera del Sol · New build & off-plan
Building new in Riviera del Sol: one plot at a time
There is no phased off-plan release on this slope. Riviera del Sol and Miraflores Golf were developed together and finished decades ago, so building new here means one plot on the upper terraces, or the demolition and rebuild of an early house, under a Mijas licence.
- Municipality
- Mijas
- Province
- Málaga
- Part of
- Mijas
The origin explains the supply. The club's own history records that Miraflores de la Riviera golf opened in April 1990, that the layout began with Robert Trent Jones and was redrawn and overseen by Falco Nardi, and that a South African company and the local urbanisation developer together held eight hundred of the fifteen hundred founding shares through an entity called UMSA. The course and the housing around it were one commercial project, drawn once at resort scale and then filled in over thirty years. What is left today is gaps between finished streets rather than phases waiting to be launched, which is why a buyer looking for a sales office and a masterplan here will not find either.
The second thing to price is the gradient, because on this hillside it is the budget rather than a detail. A plot on the upper terraces usually needs retaining structure, a levelled platform and a route for surface water down to a public drain, and the upper streets are steep and in places single-lane, so crane and lorry access is a real line item before any wall goes up. A rebuild lower down is easier to reach and harder in a different way: you are working between occupied neighbours in a community that was constituted decades before your project existed.
What actually gets built on this slope
Two routes exist here and both are single-house projects. The first is a remaining plot, generally on the upper terraces towards the ridge, bought and built under a Mijas licence. The second is a replacement: an early terrace or a 1990s villa above the course comes down and something better specified goes up on the same footprint. Neither is an off-plan release with a phase plan and a payment schedule attached to a brand. If a scheme is presented to you as a Riviera del Sol development, check the address against the urbanisation boundary before you accept the label — the coastal strip either side carries its own separate projects.
The commercial test for a new house here is unforgiving in a useful way. It will be listed beside dozens of terraced houses from the late 1980s and 1990s at a lower ask, so it has to win on the things a buyer can feel in February: insulation, glazing, a terrace that drains, heating that works and a running cost that is lower than the neighbours. The ten-year structural cover matters more than usual on a retained slope, because article 19.1.c) of Ley 38/1999 is written around foundations, supports, beams, floor structures and load-bearing walls — which is precisely what a levelled platform on a hillside is made of.
| Original design credit | The layout began with Robert Trent Jones and was redesigned and overseen by Falco Nardi, who died before completion 2026-08-26 |
|---|---|
| Who developed it | A South African company and the local urbanisation developer jointly held eight hundred of the fifteen hundred founding shares through the entity UMSA 2026-08-26 |
| Where the licence file sits | Mijas handles licences, works and industry, and urban discipline, at Avenida Virgen de la Peña 2, planta -3 2026-08-26 |
| Ten-year structural cover | Article 19.1.c) of Ley 38/1999 requires ten-year cover for damage originating in foundations, supports, beams, floor structures and load-bearing walls 2026-08-26 |
How this runs, step by step
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Step 1
Establish what the plot allows
Specific to Mijas
Before any money moves, take the plot reference to the Mijas urbanismo counters, which sit on Avenida Virgen de la Peña 2 at planta -3 and handle licences, works and industry alongside urban discipline. Establish in writing whether the project runs as a Licencia de Obras Mayores or a Declaración Responsable de Obras, and what the plot is actually permitted to carry.
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Step 2
See the guarantee, not the render
From the licencia de edificación onwards, a developer taking money in advance must guarantee every payment plus legal interest through a seguro de caución or an aval solidario, and must receive those payments through a credit institution into an account separate from all its other funds. Ask to see the policy document and the account details, not a reassurance.
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Step 3
Cost the slope before the plan
Specific to Mijas
Get a builder onto the plot early and price the parts that are invisible on a drawing: retaining structure, the levelled platform, the surface-water route, and how a lorry and a crane will reach a street that may be single-lane. On these upper terraces those items routinely decide whether a project is worth doing at all.
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Step 4
Fix the specification in the contract
Attach the written specification to the contract and make the substitutions explicit: glazing, insulation, the terrace waterproofing, the pool plant and the air-conditioning. On a hillside where the neighbouring resale stock dates from the 1990s, the specification is the entire commercial argument for a new house, so it belongs in the deed file rather than in a brochure.
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Step 5
Join a community built decades earlier
Specific to Mijas
An infill house does not create a fresh community; it joins one whose accounts, reserve fund and pending works were settled long before. Ask for the current budget, the last three sets of minutes and how your quota will be calculated, and check whether any levy already approved will fall on the plot once the new home is registered.
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Step 6
Occupancy first, then the keys
Mijas brings a finished building into use through a Declaración Responsable de Ocupación y/o Utilización, and the definitive utility contracts follow it rather than precede it. Make the notary date conditional on that step being complete and on the ten-year structural policy being in force, then transfer the Acosol water contract into your own name.
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A new build is taxed differently from a resale: IVA plus AJD rather than the Andalucían transfer tax, and your lawyer confirms the current rates in writing before you commit to anything. Payments are staged against construction milestones and each one should be covered by the guarantee before it leaves your account. Then budget the slope: retaining work, access for plant, the water connection and the community quota that starts the day the house is registered. Against neighbouring addresses, Riviera del Sol still sits below Calahonda and below La Cala de Mijas, so a new house has to earn its position on specification rather than on the postcode.
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 Riviera del Sol
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What does building on the upper terraces actually add?
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Everything that holds the ground up and everything that gets machinery to it. On the upper slope a project normally carries retaining structure, a levelled platform and a designed route for surface water, and the streets that serve those terraces are steep and in places single-lane, so delivery and crane access are priced rather than assumed. None of that appears on an architect's elevation. Get a builder to walk the plot and quote those items before the design is fixed, because they frequently decide the shape of the house.
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Does a new house here join the existing community automatically?
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In most cases yes, and that is the part buyers forget to check. The schemes on this slope were constituted in sequence over three decades, so an infill house or a rebuild normally lands inside an existing comunidad with its own budget, reserve fund and history of approved works. Ask for the constitution, the current budget and three years of minutes before you commit, and establish how your quota is calculated. A levy voted before you arrived can still reach you afterwards.
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Will a new build resell against the terraces below?
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It can, but only on the strength of what the older stock does not have. The hillside is full of terraced houses from the late 1980s and 1990s that will be advertised at a lower ask on the same day, so a new home has to answer a comparison rather than avoid it. The arguments that work are the measurable ones: insulation, glazing, a terrace that drains properly, efficient heating and cooling, and a running cost the buyer can see in a bill.
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