DAVIES ABOGADOS — BUYER’S GUIDE
Ibiza or Marbella?
What €1,000,000 Really Buys You
It’s a question we hear often, usually from clients who have fallen in love with both islands and coast in equal measure, and simply can’t decide. Ibiza and Marbella are, in many ways, Spain’s two flagship destinations for international buyers — but they are genuinely different propositions, and a budget of €1,000,000 goes a very different distance in each. Here’s how we’d break it down.
1. What Your Million Actually Buys
The headline difference is space. Marbella’s wider market — including Estepona and Benahavís, the so-called “Golden Triangle” — has been averaging somewhere around €4,500–6,000 per square metre through 2026, though it climbs past €7,000/m² on the Golden Mile and into the €10,000s in the most exclusive pockets. Ibiza, by contrast, has been running at roughly €7,000–9,000/m² for houses and around €6,700–6,900/m² for apartments — among the highest averages in Spain, and still climbing.
In practical terms: at broad market prices, €1,000,000 in Marbella typically buys somewhere in the region of 170–220 m² — a comfortable modern villa or a generous apartment, outside the very top locations. The same budget in Ibiza tends to land you an apartment, or a modest (often inland) house of perhaps 110–140 m² — rarely a detached villa with land near the coast, where prices commonly start well above €1.5–2 million. Only at the very top of the Marbella market — the Golden Mile, Sierra Blanca, La Zagaleta — does the price gap close, with prime pricing there now rivalling or exceeding Ibiza’s own most sought-after spots.
2. The Legal and Tax Picture
This is where our job comes in, and where the two locations genuinely diverge — not because the basic purchase process differs (it doesn’t; NIE, notary, Land Registry and the usual due diligence apply island-wide and coast-wide alike), but because Ibiza and Marbella sit in different autonomous communities, each with its own tax rules.
| Factor | Marbella (Andalusia) | Ibiza (Balearic Islands) |
|---|---|---|
| Wealth Tax | 100% regional bonification for net wealth under the €3M state solidarity-tax threshold — in practice, most second-home owners pay nothing. | No general bonification; Balearic Islands applies its own tariff (up to 3.45%) above a €3M exempt minimum. Matters mainly for buyers with larger overall net worth. |
| Inheritance Tax | €1,000,000 reduction per heir plus a 99% bonification for spouse/children — most family inheritances are effectively tax-free. | 100% bonification for spouse and children under the current regional law — similarly close to tax-free for direct family. |
| Non-Resident Income Tax | Same nationwide rules (Modelo 210) — 19% for EU/EEA residents, 24% for others, on rental or imputed income. | Identical — this is a state tax, not a regional one. |
| Golden Visa | Not applicable anywhere in Spain — abolished in April 2025. Property purchase no longer grants residency in either location. | Same. |
| Holiday-Let Licensing | Still realistically obtainable in most Costa del Sol municipalities, though a 2025 reform now requires a 3/5 majority vote from your community of owners, plus regional (VFT) and national (NRUA) registration. | Significantly harder. A 2022 moratorium and a strict “eligible zones” system mean many apartments — and even some houses — can never legally obtain a tourist licence. This must be checked before you sign anything. |
3. Lifestyle and Everyday Practicalities
- Character: Marbella offers a genuinely year-round life — golf, international schools, established private healthcare, and a large, settled expat community across a wide age range. Ibiza has a more seasonal rhythm: a famously vibrant summer, a much quieter “real Ibiza” winter, and a community that leans more bohemian, wellness-oriented and design-conscious.
- Connectivity: Málaga Airport is a major international hub with year-round direct flights across the UK, Ireland and much of Europe. Ibiza’s airport is comparatively seasonal, with far fewer direct routes — and often higher fares — outside the summer months.
- Getting around: Marbella sits on the mainland with easy road access to Málaga, Gibraltar and beyond. Ibiza is an island — everything, including most building materials for any renovation, arrives by ferry, which affects both convenience and cost.
- Community: Marbella’s international community is broader and includes many more families and retirees; Ibiza’s tends to skew toward a more youthful, creative and design/hospitality-driven crowd, alongside its own long-established rural and expat population inland.
4. So, Which Is Right for You?
There’s no universally correct answer — it depends on what you want from the property, and from your years in Spain. A few honest sketches, drawn from what we hear most often from clients:
Retiring couple, 60s–70s, want an easy year-round life
Marbella, most of the time.
Direct flights home, English-speaking private healthcare on your doorstep, and a life that doesn’t disappear every October. €1M buys real comfort here — a villa or a spacious apartment with a garden or terrace, in a well-established community of people in a similar stage of life.
Family with school-age children
Marbella.
The concentration of international schools, the space €1M buys, and mainland connectivity for grandparents visiting (or school-run logistics) all favour the coast over the island.
Younger couple or individual (30s–40s), design- and lifestyle-led, comfortable with a quieter off-season
Ibiza, if the island’s rhythm genuinely appeals.
You’ll get less square footage for your million, but you’re buying into something Marbella doesn’t really offer: the particular Ibiza mix of natural landscape, wellness culture and a famously international, creative social scene. Go in with realistic expectations about what €1M buys physically, and be prepared for a quieter reality much of the year.
Investor focused on rental yield
Marbella and the wider Costa del Sol, without much hesitation.
Tourist letting is still realistically achievable across most of the coast (subject to your community’s approval), whereas Ibiza’s licensing regime now excludes large swathes of the property stock outright. If yield is the goal rather than personal enjoyment, verify licensing potential before you commit — in either location, but especially in Ibiza.
Buyer with significant assets beyond the property itself
Worth a proper conversation before choosing either.
Andalusia’s Wealth Tax treatment is materially more favourable once your overall net worth is substantial. This is exactly the kind of decision worth modelling with us before you commit to a region, not after completion.
In Short
Marbella gives you more space, more infrastructure, more of the year, and — for most buyers — a friendlier tax position. Ibiza gives you something harder to price: a particular kind of island life that a great many of our clients decide is worth the smaller square footage and the extra legal care. Both are excellent decisions when they’re made with your eyes open. Our job is simply to make sure they are.
