Appearing in the The Sunday Times\u2019 Culture International supplement, their \u2018Marbella por favor\u2019 report is, as you would expect, informed, balanced and up-to-date, with an emphasis on facts and figures.<\/p>\n
The latest statistics from Spain\u2019s housing department, for example, show that while, nationwide, foreign demand for coastal homes is up<\/strong> 29 per cent in the last 12 months, in the province of M\u00e1laga that figure has soared by a massive 61 per cent, while Marbella\u2019s planning department has recently announced an impressive increase in construction activity in the first half of 2013 with 123 new-build licence applications processed \u2013 twice the number for the same period last year. That figure, incidentally, is predicted to double again by 2014.<\/strong><\/p>\n Property sales in Marbella were also up by more than 21 per cent last year, with homes priced between \u20ac200,000 and \u20ac1.4m proving the most popular. It\u2019s true to say that nowadays \u20ac1m will buy a lot more bricks and mortar in Marbella than it would in either Ibiza or Barcelona.<\/p>\n Mayor, Angeles Mu\u00f1oz, who\u2019s been in office since 2007, has also played a massive part in Marbella\u2019s new renaissance. Despite the fact that one noteworthy newspaper has described her job as \u201cthe most difficult mayoralty in the history of Spanish democracy\u201d, the former doctor has legalised the vast majority of the town\u2019s illegally built properties, drawn-up an urban plan defining Marbella\u2019s future, and while 36 per cent of the working population in M\u00e1laga province are looking for a job, she has been instrumental in reducing unemployment in Marbella to less than 20 per cent. Appearing in the The Sunday Times\u2019 Culture International supplement, their \u2018Marbella por favor\u2019 report is, as you would expect, informed, balanced and up-to-date, with an emphasis on facts and figures. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[159,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-property-news","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nTo her enormous credit, Mu\u00f1oz has also reduced the red tape associated with the granting of building permits, cutting the waiting time from 18 months to just 6; reopened talks about the possibility of extending the Malaga to Fuengirola train line in order to link Marbella<\/strong> with Spain\u2019s high-speed AVE network; and following more than two years of delays and setbacks, only recently (September) she succeeded in reaching a new agreement regarding the town\u2019s much-needed Port Al Thani project which now looks almost certain to go ahead, starting with docking facilities for Mediterranean cruise ships.
\n<\/strong>
\nAs for George Clooney, well, he\u2019s one of a new generation of Hollywood A-Listers who\u2019s recently bought himself a \u20ac4m villa in the Marbella hills. Rumour has it that Clooney\u2019s good friends Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are also looking for a house in what they describe as their \u201cideal European base\u201d.
\nSixty years on since the resort first welcomed a previous generation of movie megastars to the swish opening of the Marbella Club Hotel, the town is turning over a new leaf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"