Torreguadiaro, the fishing beach Sotogrande was built behind

The village is older than the estate beside it, but not by much. Torreguadiaro formed in the early twentieth century as a handful of fishermen's houses on the beach, under the tower that gives the place its name, and it was still roughly that when Sotogrande was laid out behind it in the 1960s. Today it is a short grid of streets caught between the A-7 and the sand, part of the Valle del Guadiaro district of San Roque. The Laguna de Torreguadiaro closes it to the south; the boundary with Málaga province sits a short way north.

The stock reflects a village that filled in gradually rather than being planned. Front-line blocks of two and three bedroom apartments face the bay, most of them from the 1980s and 1990s, with balconies looking straight over the paseo. Behind them are older village houses, some of them still single storey, and a scattering of small hotels and hostales that never became resorts. Newer infill schemes have gone up on the inland side of the road. There are almost no villas and almost no large plots: this is an apartment market with an unusually short walk to the water.

Life here runs on the beach and on the chiringuitos, and it keeps running in winter, which is the part that surprises people. The bay is a working strand with a Red Cross post, grey sand and a width that widens as it approaches the port. Bahía Limón sits directly on the sand and does music as well as food. The Virgen del Carmen is carried out to sea every 16 July. In August the parking becomes a sport and the paseo is shoulder to shoulder; in February a core of bars stays open for a population that actually lives here.

The honest caveat is the road and the density. The A-7 runs along the back of the village, close enough that traffic noise reaches the inland streets, and front-line buildings sit directly above a promenade that does not go quiet until late. Nothing here is gated in the Sotogrande sense, so security and grounds are whatever each block pays for. Against that, Torreguadiaro is the cheapest way to hold a genuine beach address within walking distance of Sotogrande's port, and that combination keeps demand steady from both letting buyers and residents.

Three ages sit on top of each other in a strip barely two streets deep. The oldest layer is the fishermen's village: low, whitewashed, flat-fronted houses, a few still on one floor. Over them came the 1980s and 1990s beach blocks, four to six storeys, rendered and balconied, turned square to the bay. The newest work is infill on the inland side of the A-7 and refurbishment of the front-line flats, where terraces get glazed and interiors get stripped back. Nothing is gated, roof terraces matter more than gardens, and a re-plumbed 1980s apartment is the commonest thing on the market.

The day is short and horizontal: the paseo, the sand, a coffee, a swim, a long lunch at a chiringuito, and back. You can do the whole of it without a car, which is the village's real argument. The supermarket run and the school run both go inland to Pueblo Nuevo de Guadiaro. In February a working core of bars and the bakery stay open and the beach belongs to dog walkers. From late June it inverts completely: the paseo fills, the chiringuitos run music into the night, and the sound at the front is people rather than surf.

It suits a buyer who wants sand under the balcony rather than a garden, who likes a village that keeps a winter population, and who intends to let the flat in summer without apologising for the noise. It works for sailors priced out of the port itself. It does not suit anyone looking for a gated perimeter, private grounds, a quiet August or a plot; nor anyone who needs to garage two cars, because parking in the village is genuinely difficult from June to September.