I help British buyers find property on the Costa del Sol — without the usual runaround
My name is Michael Walker. I am based in the Costa del Sol, I am British, and I set up My Spanish Property Finder because I kept watching UK buyers make expensive, avoidable mistakes when buying in Spain. Not because they were careless — but because nobody was giving them straight answers.
If you are thinking about buying property on the Costa del Sol — whether it is a holiday home, a permanent move, or an investment — this is the place to get real information from someone who actually lives here.
How this started
I moved to the Costa del Sol after spending years watching friends and family go through the same frustrating experience: search online for months, fly out for a weekend viewing trip, get handed a stack of glossy brochures, and come home either having bought something they had reservations about or completely confused about where to start.
The problem was rarely the property. It was the information gap. Agents in Spain are working for the seller, not the buyer. Listing portals show you what is for sale but nothing about what a particular area is actually like to live in, what the community fees are doing, or whether the school your kids would need is a 45-minute drive away. And for British buyers in particular, the post-Brexit rules around deposits, mortgages, and residency have added a whole extra layer of complexity that most of the content out there — frankly — gets wrong or skips over entirely.
So I started writing it down properly. The guides on this site come from real conversations with real buyers, from lawyers and gestors I have worked with here, and from the kind of on-the-ground knowledge you only build by actually living somewhere. Every article goes through the same test: would I give this information to a friend who was about to spend €400,000 in a country they do not fully know yet? If the answer is yes, it is on the site. If it is vague or hedged or just copied from somewhere else, it is not.
My Spanish Property Finder launched in 2024. Since then I have helped hundreds of British buyers work through their options, from the early “should we even do this?” stage right through to having a shortlist of properties ready to view.
What makes this different from every other property search site
Most property sites in Spain are either developer portals (they are selling you something specific) or aggregators (they list everything and tell you nothing). My Spanish Property Finder is neither.
Local knowledge, not just listings
I cover the western Costa del Sol in detail: Estepona, Marbella, Benahavís, Mijas Costa, Sotogrande, Puerto Banús and the areas in between. Not because I have offices in all of them, but because I know them. I know which urbanisations have well-run community fees and which ones are a headache. I know where traffic gets bad in August. I know which new-build developments are building at a pace that suggests they will actually finish on time and which ones have been “coming soon” for three years.
That kind of information does not appear on a listing. But it is exactly what you need to make a good decision.
Built for British buyers, specifically
Brexit changed things. As a British buyer you are now a non-EU buyer in Spain, which means different mortgage rules (expect 30-40% deposit rather than the 20% that EU buyers can often access), different residency paths, and different tax exposure. The Non-Lucrative Visa, the 90/180-day rule, the EU Entry/Exit System, Form 210 for non-resident property owners — these are not abstract concerns. They are things that will affect your plans and your costs from day one.
Every piece of content on this site is written with a British buyer in mind. Not a generic international buyer. Not a Northern European buyer (though much of it applies). A British buyer who wants to know the actual catch, not a sanitised version of it.
No sales pressure, no agenda
I do not have a development to sell you. I do not get a better fee if you buy in one area over another. If I think a property is overpriced, I will say so. If I think an area is not right for what you have described, I will tell you that too, along with what I think is.
By the numbers
500+
British buyers helped find their way through the Costa del Sol market
30+
In-depth guides published on buying, living and investing on the Costa del Sol
7
Key areas covered in depth: Estepona, Marbella, Benahavís, Mijas Costa, Sotogrande, Puerto Banús and wider Costa del Sol
What I actually do for buyers
The free resources on this site — the buying guides, the area breakdowns, the tax and mortgage explainers — are there because most buyers need to understand the market before they are ready to take the next step. Read as much or as little as you need.
When you are ready to get specific about finding a property, here is how the search works:
- You fill in the contact form or send a message telling me what you are looking for: budget, area preferences, property type (apartment, villa, new build, resale), timeline, and any must-haves or deal-breakers.
- I come back with honest commentary on whether what you have described exists in the areas you are considering, what compromises you might need to make, and where the best current options are.
- If it makes sense to move forward, I put together a shortlist that includes both listed properties and off-market options from my local network — and I tell you what I actually think of each one.
- You visit on your own terms, knowing what to look for and what questions to ask.
There is no fee for the initial conversation and no obligation at any stage. If you find something through a different route and just want a second opinion before signing, that is fine too.
A note on the guides and information on this site
The articles and area guides here are written by me, updated regularly, and based on real market data rather than marketing copy. Where I cite prices, tax rates, mortgage conditions or legal rules, I include the source and the date so you can verify it yourself.
On legal, tax and mortgage topics, the guides give you a solid grounding but they are not a substitute for professional advice. Spain’s tax rules change, Brexit implications continue to evolve, and your specific situation will have details that a general guide cannot cover. I always recommend getting a qualified Spanish lawyer (abogado) and a gestor on your side before you exchange anything. I can point you toward people I trust if you need recommendations.
Thinking about buying on the Costa del Sol?
Tell me what you are looking for and I will come back with honest advice on what is realistic in your budget, which areas fit your priorities, and what is available right now — including properties that are not on the portals yet.
No sales pitch. No obligation. Just a straight answer from someone who knows the market.