Today at Lunessa Homes
A new-build in Benalmádena, secured from a kitchen table in Leeds.
I find, check and negotiate Costa del Sol homes for British buyers — free to you, paid from the seller’s side of the commission.
Read the story →Michael Fee
The one person you’ll deal with, in Málaga
[Founder photo to come]Or WhatsApp me — I reply personally. (Demo — nothing is sent.)
Every agent on this coast works for the seller. So do I — that’s why you don’t pay me.
I came out here as a foreign buyer myself, so I know the fear in it — the maze of Spanish paperwork and the sense that everyone in the room knows the rules except you. I’m paid from the seller’s side of the commission, like every agent here. The difference is what I do with my day: I walk the property before you fly, sit beside you through the NIE, the abogado, the bank and the notario, and say plainly when a price is wrong — even when it costs me the sale.
My patch is the Málaga–Nerja-to-Fuengirola corridor and the western coast, home already to some 74,000 Brits. I live here and I own here. I keep to one client at a time, which is exactly as many as a search deserves.
And when it’s time to sell, I do that too — restaging, photography, negotiation. It’s the smaller half of my week, and you’ll find one seller’s story further down this page.
— Michael Fee, Málaga
WhatsApp any evening · +34 633 970 766
The Málaga–Nerja-to-Fuengirola stretch I drive most weeks — three homes of the kind I’m shown before the portals see them.
Example listingNerja · Old Town
3 beds · 2 baths · 112 m² · terrace 18 m²
Example listingTorremolinos · La Carihuela
3 beds · 2 baths · 96 m² · terrace 22 m²
Example listingBenalmádena · Pueblo
4 beds · 3 baths · 165 m² · terrace 40 m²
The corridor, drawn properly.
Six stretches of coast, sixteen towns, the A-7, the C-1 and the airport — set down the way I actually drive them. Rest on a region to light it; choose it for its file.
2025 town averages — the same arithmetic as “The corridor, priced plainly.”
Drawn for the Almanac · simplified, not for navigation
What your money buys, town by town.
2025 averages, not brochure talk — add ~10–11% buying costs on a resale.
Read the town-by-town guide →
The arithmetic gets you to the right town. The seven o’clock light does the rest.
New builds carry 10% IVA plus 1.2% AJD — call it 12–14% all in. I’ll do that arithmetic with you before you fall for a show flat.
Example listingBenalmádena · Costa
2 beds · 2 baths · 76 m² · terrace 12 m²
Example listingFuengirola · Higuerón
3 beds · 2 baths · 104 m² · terrace 28 m²
Example listingEstepona · Old Town
2 beds · 2 baths · 88 m² · terrace 15 m²
From first call to keys. Usually 6–12 weeks.
Cash, that is — eight to sixteen with a mortgage. Six stations between a phone call and a Spanish front door, and I walk every one of them beside you.
Hover — or tap — any station.
Station I · The first call · free, 30 min
Half an hour on WhatsApp or a video call, whenever suits. We talk budget, towns and timing — and whether the Costa del Sol actually fits the life you’re planning. No forms, and nothing to prepare.
What I do
If your budget and your shortlist disagree, I’ll say so on this call — before you book a single flight.
Station II · The shortlist · weeks 1–2
Over the first week or two I work my patch — the Málaga–Nerja-to-Fuengirola corridor — ringing agents I know and checking homes that never reach the portals. You get a shortlist with honest notes: community fees, licences, what the street is like at ten at night.
What I do
I walk the promising ones before you fly, and film what the listing photos won’t show you.
Station III · The viewing trip · 3–5 days
You fly out — about 2h55 from Manchester, 2h45 from Gatwick, so a long weekend genuinely works. Three to five days, six to ten homes across one or two areas, planned to the hour. I drive, I translate, and I ask about the damp.
What I do
I plan the trip around the homes, not the other way about — and I’m beside you in every room.
Station IV · Reserva & arras
The reserva takes the home off the market while your lawyer checks everything. When they’re satisfied, the contrato de arras follows — a 10% deposit that binds both sides properly, seller included.
What I do
I bring the independent abogado — never the seller’s — and nothing is signed until they’re happy.
Station V · Notary day
The escritura — the deed — is signed before the notario, the balance moves, and the home becomes yours in law. It takes about an hour, and it’s more ceremony than ordeal.
What I do
I sit beside you and check the final figures against what we agreed — line by line, before anything is signed.
Station VI · Keys & after
Keys in hand — and then the part most agencies skip: NIE number, Spanish bank account, utilities into your name, furniture through the door. Francois & Maria had all of it handled before they landed.
What I do
The aftercare is the service, not an extra — I’m still on WhatsApp long after the keys.
Timings assume a cash purchase — a mortgage adds the bank’s pace, not mine.
Start at station one →Not everything I’m shown gets listed.
Agents on this coast share most of their stock with each other, and some sellers never want a portal listing. If nothing above fits, ask — the best home I show you may never appear online.
Ask about quiet sales →Notes from the corridor.
A Local’s View
Nerja: where the corridor slows down.
Past the Balcón crowds the old town settles to €3,734 a square metre, the evening paseo is free, and the best streets never make the portals…
Read →
The Paperwork, Plainly
Reserva, arras, escritura — the three documents between you and the keys.
What each one binds, why the 10% arras deposit cuts both ways — a seller who walks repays it double — and where your abogado earns their fee…
Read →The Arithmetic
What a €350,000 apartment really costs.
ITP versus IVA, notary, lawyer and registry — the 10–11% on a resale, the 12–14% on a new build, worked line by line…
Read →We bought our flat in Benalmádena from our kitchen table. Michael walked every room before we did, then handled the NIE, the bank — even the furniture.
Francois & Maria · bought new-build, central Benalmádena
Three real outcomes — a purchase, a sale, a renovation. That’s the whole service, told honestly.
BoughtA new-build flat, central Benalmádena
Francois & Maria · searched from the UK
The search ran remotely from Nerja to Fuengirola before it settled here. NIE, bank account and furniture all handled before they landed.
SoldA family apartment, Fuengirola
Daniel · seller
Six months unsold with another agency. Restaged, reshot and repriced with intent — an offer landed in three weeks.
Bought & renovatedA 1970s apartment with good bones, Málaga
Alex · buyer-renovator
The discount I negotiated funded a six-week renovation for under €30,000. It has sea views now.
Three clients, three outcomes — no ledgers, no padded numbers.
Know the real numbers before you book a flight.
- What a €250,000 purchase truly costs, line by line — ITP vs IVA, notary, lawyer
- The 90-in-180 Schengen rule, and the golden-visa facts as they stand in 2026
- The corridor’s honest 2025 €/m² prices, Nerja to Estepona — no brochure talk
One email with the report attached. Nothing else, ever. (Demo — nothing is sent.)