Registradores de España have just published the official fourth quarter 2025 price data, and the numbers are worth a careful look. In our March Journal I shared the sales figures: Marbella down 7.8%, Benahavís down 11.0%, Mijas down 16.1%, and only Estepona growing at +9.7%. The question is clear: do fewer sales mean proper-ties are worth less? As the chart shows, no, sold prices rose in all four municipalities.
1. Fewer sales, higher prices. Benahavís reached 3,833 €/m² (+2.0%), Marbella 4,202 €/m² (+3.2%), Estepona posted the strongest growth at 3,349 €/m² (+6.0%), and Mijas 3,316 €/m² (+1.7%). The market is not slowing down but it is becoming more selective, with fewer transactions but at stronger prices than the quarter before.
2. The gap is closing (look at the arrows). In Marbella, Benahavís and Estepona the gap between ask-ing and sold prices is narrowing, and the reason is visible in the data: sold prices are rising faster than asking prices, meaning sellers are becoming more realistic and the market is rewarding them for it. Marbella stands at 31.4%, Benahavís at 42.5% and Estepona at 23.9%, all trending down. Mijas is the exception: asking prices there climb faster (+2.9%) than sold prices (+1.7%), pushing the gap to 8.5% a clear sign that sellers in Mijas are somewhat behind the market and did not increase heavily the prices.
3. Pricing discipline does work. In our own portfolio, where we only take on properties priced to the market, listings have consistently sold within 90 days at less than 3% off asking over the past year. What these markets now show in their official numbers is what we have been saying all along: price it right and it sells well.
This market rewards realism and does not wait for those who are not ready to adjust.
In our next article, I look at the same data from three angles because what these numbers mean for a seller, a buyer and an investor is not the same thing at all.
