Moving to Marbella: residence permits, districts, prices, schools and the Russian community

You can move to Marbella on any basis for a Spanish residence permit; the most common are the digital nomad visa and the non-working residence permit. Marbella is the second most populous city in the province of Málaga, with 159,786 residents, almost a third of them foreigners, and more Russian citizens than Málaga itself. The city has a sunny climate, British schools and Andalusia’s taxes, which are mild on large estates and inheritance. The trade-offs: housing at twice the Spanish average, no railway, and more crime per resident than the national average. Below we cover which residence permit to choose, how to move step by step, which district to live in, how much housing costs, which taxes apply, what to expect from schools, including a Russian school, and how Marbella differs from Málaga.

Moving to Marbella: answers to the key questions

• Can you move there? Yes, with an ordinary Spanish residence permit. There are no special rules for Marbella; applications go to the immigration office of the province of Málaga.
• Which residence permit is most common? Remote workers take the digital nomad visa: income from €2,849 a month. People living on savings and passive income take the non-working residence permit: from €2,400 a month for the applicant.
• How much does housing cost? In August 2026 a flat in Marbella cost on average €5,956 per square metre — twice the Spanish average. Rent is €23.7/m² a month, one and a half times the average.
• What is the climate like? Warm and sunny: at the Málaga Airport station, an annual average of 18.5 °C, 12.1 °C in January and 2,905 hours of sunshine.
• Is there a large Russian-speaking community? Large by Spanish standards: 2,794 Russian citizens and 3,859 Ukrainian citizens, 28% of all Russian citizens in the province of Málaga.
• Is there a Russian school? There is no officially registered Russian school in Andalusia’s registers; private supplementary education centres operate instead. There are several British schools authorised by Andalusia.
• Straight to permanent residence? No. First a temporary residence permit; long-term residence comes after five years of legal residence.

Which residence permit to get for living in Marbella

The route is chosen by your source of income. Marbella has no immigration office of its own: applications go to the office of the province of Málaga (Oficina de Extranjería, Paseo Sancha, 64, Málaga). The National Police station in Marbella is at Avenida Arias de Velasco, 25; whether it takes fingerprints for the residence card is shown when you book an appointment. A comparison of all routes is in the article Spanish residence permit: all the ways to get one.

The digital nomad visa threshold is linked to the minimum wage and in 2026 it rose retroactively; details are in our news piece on the income threshold for the digital nomad visa. After five years you can obtain permanent residence in Spain, and after ten you can apply for citizenship.

How to move to Marbella: step by step

1. Choose a route and check that you meet the income requirement for the whole family.
2. Decide where to apply: through the Spanish consulate in your country or, if the route allows it, from within Spain. The digital nomad visa can be obtained while already legally in Spain — in that case the residence permit is issued straight away for up to three years.
3. Gather documents: apostilled criminal record certificates, proof of income, health insurance, sworn translations into Spanish.
4. Arrive and rent a home. Short-term rental is more convenient for the first months; a long-term lease is easier to sign once you have the residence permit decision. How to look for a flat is in the article how to rent a flat in Spain.
5. Register with Marbella City Council — empadronamiento (municipal registration). Without it you cannot enrol a child in school or register with a doctor.
6. Give fingerprints and collect your residence card (TIE) from the National Police by appointment.
7. Sort out healthcare. Employees and autónomos (self-employed) register with the Seguridad Social (Spanish social security) and get a health card from SAS, the Andalusian health service. The non-working residence permit requires private insurance from a Spanish company — which policy works and what it costs.
8. Open a bank account, enrol the children in school, sort out taxes. Once you have lived in Spain for more than 183 days in a year you become a tax resident — taxes in Spain for individuals.

Marbella in figures: compared with Málaga

The main choice on the Costa del Sol is between resort life in Marbella and the city of Málaga itself, 57 km away.

Where to live: Marbella’s districts

The city council divides Marbella into five districts: Las Chapas, Marbella Este, Marbella Oeste, Nueva Andalucía and San Pedro Alcántara. Prices by area, according to Idealista for August 2026:

• Nagüeles-Golden Mile (Milla de Oro) — the most expensive area: €8,336/m² to buy and €27.7/m² a month to rent.
• San Pedro Alcántara — the most affordable for buying, at €4,600/m². A Russian Orthodox Church place of worship is also registered here.
• Las Chapas-El Rosario — the most affordable for renting, at €17.7/m² a month.

If Marbella is beyond your budget, neighbouring coastal towns are also popular with Russian and Ukrainian speakers: Estepona has 79,621 residents, including 1,376 Russian and 1,712 Ukrainian citizens; Mijas has 95,104 residents. You can compare with other cities on rent and income in the ranking of Spanish cities and on the relocation map. The city itself, its beaches, climate and sights are described in the guide Marbella.

Cost of living in Marbella

• Buying a home. According to Idealista, in August 2026 a flat in Marbella cost on average €5,956/m², up 4% year on year — twice the Spanish average (€2,924/m²) and one and a half times Málaga (€3,938/m²). The appraised value according to the Ministry of Housing in the first quarter of 2026 was €4,332.7/m², up 10.8% year on year.
• Rent. €23.7/m² a month, up 8% year on year — one and a half times the Spanish average (€15.1/m²). At this rate a 70 m² flat costs about €1,660 a month. According to landlords’ tax returns (the state SERPAVI index), the median rent for a flat in 2024 was €800 a month for 89 m², but these are existing, often older, leases, not the prices of new listings.
• No rent cap. Andalusia has not declared any stressed rental market areas, so landlords set the rent for new leases themselves.
• Tourist lets. Under Andalusian Decree-Law 1/2025, the city council can restrict tourist flats by zone and building and suspend new registrations for up to three years. In addition, a building’s community rules can ban short-term letting — in Marbella the registrar refused a tourist rental number precisely because of the community rules. If you are buying a flat to let, check this before the purchase.
• IBI. Property tax in Marbella in 2026 is 0.65% of the cadastral value. For a flat with a cadastral value of €200,000 that is €1,300 a year before any rebates.
• Minimum budget. The residence permit requirements give a benchmark: for living without working, from €2,400 a month for one person; for the digital nomad visa, from €2,849.

Taxes in Marbella and Andalusia

• IRPF. The regional scale runs from 9.5% to 22.5%: 9.5% up to €13,000, then 12%, 15% and 18.5%, and 22.5% above €60,000. The Spain-wide part of the tax is added to it.
• Tax on buying a resale home (ITP) — 7%. The reduced rates of 6% and 3.5% for buyers under 35 apply only to a main home up to €150,000, which at Marbella’s appraised values means a flat of less than 35 m².
• Buying a new-build — IVA plus 1.2% stamp duty (AJD).
• Wealth tax. The tax-free allowance is €700,000, and Andalusian law provides a 100% rebate. But while the state tax on large fortunes remains in force, the full rebate works only for those who do not pay it: for everyone else the rebate is reduced by the amount of that tax.

You can work for yourself by registering as an autónomo — step-by-step guide. Taxes when buying are covered in the article property taxes in Spain.

Schools: British, bilingual and Russian

• Language. Andalusia has one official language, Spanish; there is no second regional language at school.
• How many schools. In the 2024/25 school year Marbella had 88 educational institutions excluding universities: 45 public and 43 private, including nurseries.
• Bilingual programme — in 20 schools, 11 of them public. With English: the secondary schools IES Bahía de Marbella, IES Nueva Andalucía, IES Guadalpín, IES Sierra Blanca, IES Vega de Mar and a new secondary school, and the primary schools CEIP María Teresa León, CEIP Vicente Aleixandre and CEIP Valdeolletas; with French: CEIP Nuestra Señora del Carmen and IES Río Verde.
• British schools. Authorisations from the Andalusian government to teach the British curriculum have been published in the official gazette BOJA for Aloha College, The British School of Marbella, Swans International Primary School, International College San Pedro and Calpe School. Whether an authorisation is still valid should be checked with the school itself.
• Russian school. Andalusia’s directory of educational institutions lists no Russian school in Marbella, and there is no order authorising a Russian curriculum. Centres that call themselves Russian schools operate as private supplementary education: children obtain their school-leaving certificate from a Spanish or British school. Where to find Russian-language classes for your child is covered in the article Russian schools in Spain.

Healthcare, transport, work and safety

• Hospital. The Costa del Sol University Hospital (Hospital Universitario Costa del Sol) is in Marbella itself, on the A-7 at km 187. Since 2022 it has been part of the SAS system and serves nine municipalities from Fuengirola to Manilva — 437,371 residents as of the end of 2022. The city has five health centres.
• No train. Marbella has no railway station of its own: the nearest commuter train is in Fuengirola, 27 km away, and Málaga’s main station is 57 km away. Málaga Airport is about 40 minutes by car, and the Avanzabús coach runs from the airport. In 2025 the airport handled a record 26.8 million passengers.
• Toll road. The AP-7 Málaga–Guadiaro toll motorway runs along the coast; tolls rose by 3.64% from 2026.
• Work. In 2025 Marbella had 7,295 registered unemployed, and the municipal unemployment rate according to the Andalusian Institute of Statistics was 10.7%. The city has 48 hotels with 12,606 beds.
• Safety. In 2025, 14,149 offences were recorded in Marbella. Conventional crime (excluding cybercrime) comes to about 76 cases per 1,000 residents, against 40.4 on average in Spain and 52 in Málaga — the highest rate among the large cities of the province. Most of the difference comes from tourists and seasonal residents: crimes against them are counted, but they are not included in the number of residents. Burglaries of homes fell by 21% over the year.

Russian and Ukrainian community in Marbella

According to the INE annual census, at 1 January 2025 Marbella was home to 2,794 Russian citizens and 3,859 Ukrainian citizens. That is 28% of all Russian citizens in the province of Málaga — more than in Málaga itself (1,717), even though Málaga is almost four times larger. The community shrank during 2024: the number of Russian citizens fell by 4.5% and Ukrainian citizens by 9.7%. Overall, foreigners make up 31% of Marbella’s residents, with Moroccans (4,893), Britons (4,844) and Colombians (4,008) the largest groups. In the state register of religious entities, the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has a place of worship in San Pedro Alcántara (C/ Hermanos Álvarez Quintero, 4). How the community is spread across the country is covered in the article Russians in Spain.

Downsides of living in Marbella

• Expensive housing — €5,956/m² to buy and €23.7/m² a month to rent, one and a half times Málaga.
• No train — only car, bus and the AP-7 toll road.
• More crime than average — about 76 conventional crimes per 1,000 residents against 40.4 in Spain, partly because of tourists.
• Expensive purchase — a 7% tax, with reduced rates only for homes under €150,000.
• No official Russian school — only private supplementary education centres.

Read next

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Marbella or Málaga

Both cities are on the Costa del Sol, with the same airport, the same residence permit rules and Andalusia’s taxes. Marbella is a resort with an international environment: 31% foreigners against 11.7%, more Russian citizens, several British schools and the Costa del Sol hospital in the city itself. Málaga is a large city with a metro, commuter trains and high-speed trains, a technology park, a university and noticeably more affordable housing: €3,938/m² against €5,956/m². For those who work remotely and are looking for a resort lifestyle with a Russian-speaking community around them, Marbella is the closer fit; for those who need local jobs, transport and a tighter budget, see moving to Málaga.

Frequently asked questions about moving to Marbella

Can I move to live in Marbella?

Yes. People move here on the usual Spanish residence permit routes: the digital nomad visa, the non-working residence permit, work, study or family. Applications go to the immigration office of the province of Málaga at Paseo Sancha, 64.

Which residence permit is best for living in Marbella?

For remote workers, the digital nomad visa with income from €2,849 a month. For those living on savings or passive income, the non-working residence permit: from €2,400 a month for the applicant and €600 for each family member.

How much does a flat in Marbella cost?

In August 2026 the average housing price in Marbella was €5,956 per square metre according to Idealista, 4% more than a year earlier — twice the Spanish average. The most expensive area is Nagüeles-Golden Mile (€8,336/m²), and the most affordable is San Pedro Alcántara (€4,600/m²). Rent is €23.7 per square metre a month.

How many Russians live in Marbella?

At 1 January 2025, 2,794 Russian citizens and 3,859 Ukrainian citizens. That is 28% of the Russian citizens in the province of Málaga, and more than in the city of Málaga itself.

Is there a Russian school in Marbella?

There is no officially registered Russian school in Andalusia’s directory of educational institutions. There are private supplementary education centres teaching in Russian, while children receive their main education at Spanish or British schools, such as Aloha College or The British School of Marbella.

Where is the best place to live in Marbella?

The most expensive area is Nagüeles-Golden Mile. The most affordable for buying is San Pedro Alcántara, and for renting Las Chapas and El Rosario. On a smaller budget, people look at neighbouring Estepona and Mijas.

What taxes apply in Marbella?

The taxes of Andalusia apply: a regional IRPF scale from 9.5% to 22.5%, a 7% tax on buying a resale home and 1.2% stamp duty on new-builds. IBI in Marbella is 0.65% of the cadastral value.

Is Marbella safe to live in?

Marbella has more crime per resident than the Spanish average: in 2025 about 76 conventional crimes per 1,000 residents against 40.4. But the rate is calculated per permanent resident, while crimes against tourists are also counted, so resort towns always score higher in these statistics. Theft is the most common offence.

How we can help you move to Marbella

We choose the residence permit route to fit your income and family, prepare and submit the documents, and support you through to the residence card and autónomo registration. The most common options are the turnkey digital nomad residence permit and the non-working residence permit.