La Alquería

La Alquería is roughly five square kilometres of elevated villa shelf in the foothills of Benahavís — accessed via the Benahavís road off the N-340 before the AP-7 — sitting at the literal meeting point of three municipalities: Benahavís, Marbella and Estepona. The name itself is Moorish-era — al-qariya, the farming village — but the modern residential character was set during the 1970s–80s development cycle around Atalaya Golf and accelerated post-2005 with a contemporary villa wave. It is gated and surveilled, with round-the-clock patrols a regularly cited part of the value proposition.

The valley anchor is Atalaya Golf & Country Club, founded in 1968. The Old Course was designed by Bernhard von Limburger — one of Germany's foremost golf architects, responsible for 74 European courses, with Atalaya his only Spanish work. The New Course was added in 1990. The clubhouse was completely refurbished in 2019, and Bendita Katalina is the current restaurant — terrace south down the Old Course toward the sea, the local table residents actually use. El Paraíso Golf Club sits just below La Alquería, Guadalmina Royal Golf is to the east, and Marbella Club Golf Resort is in the next valley.

Inside La Alquería itself, Mirabella Hills is the marquee gated micro-community: fourteen five-bedroom villas with only 25% of plot surface buildable, twenty-four-hour monitoring, near-360° views from Marbella to Estepona. Plots across the broader area run 1,000–3,000+ m², with frontline-golf positions on the Atalaya perimeter. Architecture is a deliberate blend — Andalusian style with a touch of European chic, while preserving Moorish influence — typically two storeys plus basement, premium materials, eco-friendly building tech. Schools nearby: Colegio Atalaya International (bilingual, El Marqués) and Marbella Montessori School (ages 2 to kindergarten).

Live villa listings range roughly €1.85M to €12M+ depending on plot, build size and golf position. Distances are the point: San Pedro de Alcántara is five kilometres (five minutes), Puerto Banús ten kilometres (thirteen), Marbella centre eighteen kilometres, Málaga airport sixty-six (fifty-five minutes), Gibraltar International about an hour and a half. Buyers tend to be Northern European and (increasingly) American — the same crowd who priced Sierra Blanca and walked west, looking for plot size, contemporary architecture and golf without the hilltop-fortress economics.