Estepona has long been one of the western Costa del Sol's most liveable towns. Not a resort that grew up serving visitors, but a working Spanish town that happens to attract them. The whitewashed old quarter is still where locals meet, the marina is a real harbour rather than a stage set, and the rhythm of the place doesn't slow down when summer ends.

The setting does much of the work. The Sierra Bermeja rises behind the town, the Mediterranean meets a beachfront promenade that runs unbroken for the length of the coast, and several of Andalusia's most respected golf courses sit within fifteen minutes' drive. Málaga airport is fifty minutes east, Gibraltar forty minutes west. The town is well-connected without the noise and density of the coast's busier postcodes.

For buyers, Estepona offers something the Marbella corridor no longer does: a real town, at human scale. Old town plazas where the evening paseo still happens, a marina with restaurants rather than nightclubs, and a flower-filled centre that's earned its title as the Garden of the Costa del Sol. Prices here have caught up to its quality, but it remains the most authentic of the well-known coastal towns, and new build activity is measured rather than wholesale.

I've called this end of the coast home for 23 years, and watching it flourish has been a real joy, one we genuinely want to share. Estepona is the grown-up version of the Costa del Sol. Cultured, walkable, lived-in. So if Puerto Banús glamour is what you're after, this honestly isn't the area for you. But if you're looking for somewhere that feels like a real place, with the infrastructure of a mature resort and the soul of a Spanish town, Estepona is hard to beat.