Cabopino, Marbella

What is Cabopino?

Cabopino is a compact seaside pocket at the eastern end of the Marbella municipality, where the built-up coast starts to give way to pine woods and dunes before you reach the Mijas boundary. Three things define it: the Puerto Deportivo de Cabopino, a small low-rise marina with restaurants and bars; the Playa de Cabopino, a wide sandy beach; and the Dunas de Artola, a protected dune system with a 16th-century watchtower behind the sand. Add an 18-hole golf course on the hill above and a large campsite in the pines, and you have a place that works as a holiday destination first and a residential address second.

That destination pull is the point for buyers. Cabopino is quieter and greener than central Marbella, with the beach and the port within walking distance of many homes, but it is still firmly inside Marbella, which matters for the address, the padrón and the school catchments. It suits people who want the sea and the marina at the door rather than a town centre, and who are happy to drive the ten minutes or so into Marbella or Fuengirola for everything else.

Where is it and how far to everything?

Cabopino sits on the coast just east of Elviria, off the A-7, in the far east of the Marbella municipality. The distances below are approximate driving distances, not travel times, which vary too much with traffic to publish honestly.

The trade-off is honest: you get the beach and the marina on foot, but Cabopino is a small place, so a car is part of daily life here for shopping, schools and work. There is no large town centre inside Cabopino itself, which is exactly why it stays calm.

The beach and the Dunas de Artola

The Playa de Cabopino is one of the least built-up beaches on this part of the coast, backed by dunes rather than a promenade of towers. Behind it lies the reason: the Dunas de Artola o Cabopino, declared a Monumento Natural by the Junta de Andalucía in 2003, covering about 19 hectares of mobile and fossil dunes. A wooden boardwalk crosses the dunes, and the 16th-century Torre Ladrones (Torre de los Ladrones), a coastal watchtower and a Bien de Interés Cultural, stands among them. The eastern end of the beach has long included a well-known naturist section. For a buyer, the protected dunes are as important as any amenity: they mean this stretch cannot be built out, so the open, natural feel of the beach is permanent.

The marina and daily life

The Puerto Deportivo de Cabopino is the social heart of the area. It is a small, low-rise marina with 169 berths for boats from 6 to 15 metres, one of the few working ports between Marbella and Fuengirola, built in a whitewashed pueblo style rather than as a high-rise front. Around it sit restaurants, cafés and bars, including long-standing names that locals search for by their own names. It is where residents walk in the evening, eat out and keep a boat. Day to day, the bigger supermarkets, health centres and international schools are a few minutes away in Elviria, Las Chapas and towards Marbella, so Cabopino trades a full town centre for calm and the water.

Golf and the outdoors

On the hill above the marina, Cabopino Golf is an 18-hole, par-70 course of around 5,170 metres, opened at the turn of the 2000s. It is a shorter, tighter and hillier course than the big championship layouts further along the coast, which makes it popular with residents and improvers rather than tournament players, and green fees tend to be more accessible. Beyond golf, the appeal here is outdoor and low-key: walking in the dunes and the pine woods, the beach, water sports off the marina, and cycling the coast. It is a lifestyle that leans on the sea and the open space rather than nightlife.

Who does Cabopino suit?

In our own viewings, the strongest interest comes from three groups. Beach-and-boat buyers who want to walk to the sand and the marina and value a Marbella address without central Marbella prices on everything. Northern European second-home owners and semi-retired couples who want a calm, green base with the airport and Marbella both within easy reach. And higher-end villa and frontline buyers, because Cabopino has a genuine stock of large detached villas and beach-close homes that the protected setting keeps in demand.

It suits people less well if you need a lively town centre, a one-bed lock-up-and-leave in the middle of shops and bars, or the lowest entry price on the coast. Cabopino runs premium for what it is, and the value entry points are better found a little inland or further east towards La Cala de Mijas.

Property types and what they cost now

The figures below come from live Cabopino listings in our own network as of October 2026, not from a brochure. They are a snapshot of what is on the market today. Cabopino is a small, tightly held and relatively premium market: the stock on offer is almost entirely resale, it skews towards beach-close apartments and large villas, and prices sit above the coast average for comparable size because of the setting.

Source: Plexo Properties live listings for Cabopino, October 2026, 41 homes and plots. The Listings column is the number of current homes in each segment; prices are asking prices, not sold prices, and are drawn from our own listings, so they reflect the stock we market rather than every home in the area. We show a typical (median) price only where there are enough listings to support one (shown as — otherwise), and we refresh these figures each quarter.

A few things stand out in the current data. Apartments cover an unusually wide band, from around €449,000 for an inland resale to close to €2M for a beach-close home, so the type alone tells you little without the exact position. Villas are firmly in the luxury bracket, with a median around €3.25M, reflecting the frontline and near-marina plots. And there is almost no turn-key new-build changing hands here; if you want new, you are usually buying a resale to renovate or a plot to build on, of which there are only a handful.

Is Cabopino a good investment, and what does letting really involve?

Cabopino has strong holiday-rental appeal. The combination of a walkable beach, the marina, golf and the campsite draws steady summer demand, and the searches around the area are heavily seasonal and tourist-led. But the honest picture is the same as anywhere on this coast: returns are driven by the season and the cost base, not by year-round occupancy, and three things need to be true and budgeted for before you count on rental income.

The licence. Short-term tourist letting in Andalucía requires a Vivienda de Uso Turístico registration (the VUT, still shown as VFT on older certificates) with the Junta de Andalucía’s Registro de Turismo de Andalucía, and the licence number must appear on every advert. Since 3 April 2025, a new registration in a community of owners needs the approval of three-fifths of owners who also represent three-fifths of the participation quotas, so in some complexes it is no longer a given. Fines for operating without a valid licence run to €150,000 for the most serious breaches. Because Cabopino is in Marbella, also check the municipality’s own rules and the specific community before you buy for letting.

The tax. Non-resident owners pay income tax on Spanish rental income through Modelo 210 (IRNR). The rate is 19% for residents of the EU, Iceland and Norway, who may also deduct allowable expenses, and 24% for everyone else, with no expense deduction. That single difference matters a great deal to a Scandinavian or Dutch owner versus a British or Swiss one, and it should be modelled before purchase, not after.

Gross is not net. A realistic net calculation has to carry community fees, IBI, home insurance, utilities, cleaning and changeovers, a management fee if you are not local, and the Modelo 210 tax above. On a beach-and-marina letting profile the summer weeks are strong, but the gap between the headline gross yield and what actually lands in your account is wide. We would rather you run your own numbers than trust ours, so put your target property through our rental calculator and, for the purchase costs, the cost calculator, before deciding. This is general information and not tax advice; confirm your own position with a Spanish gestor or lawyer.

Nearby alternatives worth comparing

If Cabopino appeals but you want more of a residential neighbourhood with schools and shops, look at Elviria immediately to the west, still in Marbella and close to the same beaches. For a livelier, walkable town with a promenade and a wider price range, La Cala de Mijas is a few minutes east, over the Mijas boundary. And for the full range of Marbella East, from Los Monteros to Las Chapas, see our Marbella East guide. Each is a different trade-off between price, buzz and how natural you want the setting to stay.

Explore Cabopino with Plexo

We are a Scandinavian-run agency based on this stretch of the Costa del Sol and we sell across Marbella East every week, so the guidance above comes from viewings, not a desk. When you are ready to go further:

• See current homes for sale in Cabopino and the surrounding area
• Browse new developments on the Costa del Sol
• Read the Costa del Sol buyer guide before you make an offer
• Model the numbers with the rental calculator and cost calculator
• Or just tell us what you are looking for and we will send a short, honest brief for Cabopino

Frequently asked questions

Where exactly is Cabopino?

On the coast at the eastern edge of the Marbella municipality, between Marbella and Fuengirola, just east of Elviria and off the A-7. It is about 13 km from Marbella centre and roughly 38 km by road from Málaga Airport.

Is Cabopino in Marbella or Mijas?

Cabopino is in Marbella, in Málaga province, not in Mijas. La Cala de Mijas, a few kilometres east, is the first town over the Mijas boundary. The distinction matters for your address, padrón and school catchment.

How much does a property in Cabopino cost?

As of October 2026, in our own listings: apartments from about €449,000 up to close to €2M for beach-close homes, townhouses from about €495,000, and detached villas from about €1.7M up to €4.75M. Building plots start around €700,000. These are current asking prices and we update them each quarter.

What is the Dunas de Artola?

It is the protected dune system behind Cabopino beach, declared a Monumento Natural by the Junta de Andalucía in 2003 and covering about 19 hectares. It contains the 16th-century Torre Ladrones watchtower and means this stretch of coast cannot be built over.

Does Cabopino have a marina and a golf course?

Yes. The Puerto Deportivo de Cabopino is a small marina with 169 berths for boats from 6 to 15 metres, ringed by restaurants and bars. Cabopino Golf, on the hill above, is an 18-hole, par-70 course that is shorter and more accessible than the coast’s big championship layouts.

Sources: Junta de Andalucía (Monumento Natural Dunas de Artola o Cabopino, Decreto 250/2003); Registro de Turismo de Andalucía (tourist-rental registration); Agencia Tributaria (Modelo 210, IRNR). Property figures: Plexo Properties live listings, October 2026.