Buying property in Río Real and Los Monteros.
The east side of Marbella, from the beach at Los Monteros, past the public hospital and two golf courses, to the new building on the hill above. Seven new developments, from €458,000.
Two golf courses, a long beach and a hill being built on, just east of the town.
Río Real and Los Monteros is the part of Marbella just east of the town. It runs from the beach at Los Monteros, across the A-7 and the Hospital Universitario Costa del Sol, through the Río Real and Santa Clara golf courses, to the hillside of Altos de los Monteros above the AP-7. Río Real golf was built for the Los Monteros hotel, which Ignacio Coca opened in 1962, to a design by Javier Arana, and it has been open since 1965.
Seven of the new developments on this site are here, from €458,000 to €1,250,000. Four are on the hill above the AP-7, with the view and a drive to everything. Three are lower down between the two roads, beside the golf courses, and the two of those with a beach time on file are five and six minutes from the sand by car.
The wider Marbella picture →·New builds in Marbella, Benahavís and Istán →·New developments, by price →
What I actually know about Río Real and Los Monteros
- Rio Real · Los Monteros asks €5,531/m² (idealista, August 2026), 7% below the Marbella average of €5,956/m² and a third below Nagüeles and the Golden Mile at €8,336/m².
- Seven new developments are on file here, with starting prices from €458,000 to €1,250,000 on the developers’ lists in October 2026. Two are finished, three are under construction and two are selling before building starts.
- The cheapest home in each development works out between €5,485/m² at Soleil, on the hill, and €10,288/m² at Royal River, beside the Río Real golf course.
- Two golf courses are in the district: Río Real, designed by Javier Arana and open since 1965, and Santa Clara, 18 holes designed by Enrique Canales. Soul Marbella Sunlife III is two minutes from Santa Clara by car, and Santa Clara Homes four minutes from Río Real.
- The Hospital Universitario Costa del Sol, the public general hospital for the western half of the coast, is on the A-7 at kilometre 187, beside the Bahía de Marbella urbanisation. Its expansion, opened on 3 March 2026, added about 40,000 m² of building, with radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and assisted reproduction among the new services.
- Los Monteros beach, at Las Adelfas, holds a Blue Flag for 2026. Soul Marbella Sunlife III is five minutes from the beach at Bahía de Marbella by car and Royal River six. From the hillside developments it is 12 to 14 minutes.
- Marbella is 8 to 17 minutes by car, Puerto Banús 13 to 18 and Málaga airport 35 to 45. La Cañada shopping centre is about 7 km from MedBlue.
- Two of the coast’s international schools are further east along the A-7: English International College at Ricmar, between Las Chapas and Elviria, and Deutsche Schule Málaga in the hills above Elviria and Cabopino.
- The A-7 runs through the lower part of the district, past the hospital, and the AP-7 toll road through the upper part. Four of the new developments are above the AP-7 and three between the two roads.
9 local facts on file — no brochure talk.
Updated 25 October 2026.
Worth knowing about Río Real and Los Monteros.
The hill and the flat are two different places to live.
Soleil, Quintessence and Origin, in Altos de los Monteros, are 12 to 14 minutes by car from the beach and from Río Real golf, and MedBlue is higher again. They have the view and the space, and the AP-7 runs just below them. Royal River, Soul Marbella Sunlife III and Santa Clara Homes are down between the two roads, beside the courses, and the first two are six and five minutes from the beach. Decide which you want before you compare their prices.
Building work on the hill until 2029.
Quintessence is finished, but Origin, from the same developer, is being built beside it, and Soleil, also next door, is selling before building starts, with handover planned for the second quarter of 2029. MedBlue is under construction and Royal River is due in the second quarter of 2028. Santa Clara Homes, finished and down by the golf, is the other way to move in without waiting.
The roads are close to most of the homes.
The hillside developments sit a few hundred metres above the AP-7, and Santa Clara Homes sits just above the A-7, which also carries the traffic to and from the hospital. Both roads are what make Marbella eight to seventeen minutes away. Stand on the terrace of the actual home at a busy hour and listen before you choose a floor or a side.
Golf frontage is a view, not a membership.
Royal River is on the Río Real golf estate and Santa Clara Homes on the Santa Clara course. Owning there gives you the green outlook. Tee times and membership are a separate question for each club, with their own cost, so ask before you pay for the frontage.
The spread per metre is the position.
Soleil and MedBlue, on the hill, work out at almost exactly the district’s own €5,531/m² on their cheapest homes. Royal River and Santa Clara Homes, on the golf and nearer the sand, are at €10,288 and €8,341. The district figure is what resale sellers are asking, not what they get, so set a new build against other new builds.
The facilities are what the community fee pays for.
All seven developments have a gym, and every one has a spa, a sauna or an indoor pool. Soul Marbella Sunlife III and Santa Clara Homes add a gate and security. Gated communities with this much to run cost more to live in, so ask for the development’s budget and the expected monthly fee in writing before you reserve.
What it costs, and what it costs to hold
Rio Real · Los Monteros asks €5,531/m² as of August 2026, third of Marbella’s seven districts and a little under the municipal average. On the hill, the new developments start at €458,000 for a two bedroom apartment at MedBlue and run to €590,000 at Origin. Lower down, Soul Marbella Sunlife III starts at €928,000 for two bedrooms, and Royal River and Santa Clara Homes at €1,200,000 and €1,250,000 for three.
A new build pays 10% VAT and 1.2% stamp duty on top of the price, plus notary, registry and your lawyer, so plan for 12 to 14% in all. A resale pays 7% transfer tax instead, about 10 to 11% with the fees. Then the annual side: IBI to Marbella town hall, the rubbish charge and the community fee, which on a development with a spa, an indoor pool and a gym is the figure to take from the budget rather than the brochure.
€/m² figures are idealista district asking prices for August 2026, the same source as the town table used across the rest of this site. New-build starting prices are from the developers’ lists on file in October 2026, before VAT.
Where it sits inside Marbella.
Marbella is not one market. Idealista splits the municipality into seven districts, and Río Real and Los Monteros sit third, the dearest of the three east of the old town. This is the whole table for August 2026.
The Elviria · Cabopino line is the one to hold this page against. It is the next district but one to the east, it asks €4,623/m², 16% less, and it has its own golf, the beach clubs and the marina at Cabopino. What Río Real and Los Monteros give you for the difference is the shorter run into Marbella and the hospital close by.
What each rung of the ladder looks like.
These are the starting prices of the new developments in Los Monteros, Altos de los Monteros and Río Real, from the developers’ own price lists, cheapest first. Four are on the hill and three lower down, by the golf courses.
Developers’ starting prices from the price lists on file in October 2026, before VAT. Each development has its own page under new developments in Marbella, with the photos, the distances and my read on the location. Tell me the rung you are on and I will bring you what is genuinely available, new or resale, on the week you are looking.
Two questions about new builds in Río Real and Los Monteros
What do the two-bedroom new builds in Río Real and Los Monteros come to?
Across the 23 two-bedroom apartments and penthouses on the developers’ current lists, the middle size is about 100 m² built, with a terrace of about 46 m², and the middle price is €591,000. The cheapest is €458,000.
When will the new builds in Río Real and Los Monteros be finished?
The developers give a handover date for 2 of the 7 developments here. The first is Royal River, with handover in the second quarter of 2028, and the last is Soleil, with handover in the second quarter of 2029. These are the developers’ own estimates. 2 of the 7 are already finished.
Nearby, and worth a look.
Nueva Andalucía · Aug 2026 €/m²
Marbella’s Golf Valley — three championship courses in one inland bowl, five minutes behind Puerto Banús, and priced above the town it belongs to.
San Pedro · Aug 2026 €/m²
The real town at the western end of Marbella, with a boulevard, a church square, a Thursday market and a beach, seven minutes from Puerto Banús and a quarter cheaper per square metre than the Golf Valley next door.
Nagüeles · Aug 2026 €/m²
The stretch between Marbella town and Puerto Banús: the beach and the grand hotels on the Golden Mile, gated communities and villas on the hill behind, and the highest price per square metre in Marbella.
Las Chapas · Aug 2026 €/m²
The east of Marbella beyond Los Monteros: villas on the hills of El Rosario above the A-7, and below it the beach at Las Chapas, where one new development is going up beside the dunes.
Looking for a buyer’s agent in Río Real and Los Monteros?
That is what I do. I’m Michael from Lunessa Homes — a British buyer’s agent living in Málaga, fluent in Spanish, working on the buyer’s side of the search. One client at a time, and Río Real and Los Monteros sits inside the stretch of coast I cover, Estepona to Nerja.
- Viewings you don’t have to fly for. I walk Río Real and Los Monteros myself and report back straight — including the places that aren’t worth your trip.
- A price sense you can hold me to. Río Real · Aug 2026 €/m² is €5,531. When an asking price ignores that, I’ll tell you.
- Local, not general. 8–17 min to Marbella by car — the kind of detail that decides a street, and only shows up on the ground.
- The parts that trip people up. The NIE, the lawyer, the bank, the paperwork in Spanish — handled alongside the search, not left to you afterwards.
Two related pages: buying a property to renovate in Río Real and Los Monteros, and selling a home here.
Thinking about Río Real and Los Monteros?
Tell me the rung you’re on and what you’re picturing. If Río Real and Los Monteros isn’t the right fit, you’ll hear that on the first call — and you’ll hear where is.
Thanks for reaching out.
I’ll be in touch shortly — usually the same day.