At a glance
- Marbella’s Puerto de la Bajadilla is set to expand from 268 berths to approximately 750 under a project carrying more than €200 million of planned investment.
- The new marina is designed for vessels of up to 70 metres, with the protected water area increasing by almost 3.5 times.
- The engineering plan includes a 1.13 km main breakwater, a 450 m counter-breakwater and a new groyne at Arroyo Primero.
- The wider scheme includes around 1,000 parking spaces, commercial space, fishing facilities and a boatyard, as well as beach-sand management measures along four Marbella beaches.
- Playa Bajadilla-Puertos averaged €6,650/m² in August 2026 asking prices, compared with €5,956/m² across Marbella and €5,170/m² in Marbella Pueblo.
- Bottom line: La Bajadilla is not an instant property-price story; it is a major piece of waterfront infrastructure that could make the eastern edge of central Marbella materially more useful, connected and visible.
Marbella has spent sixteen years waiting for a plan at Puerto de la Bajadilla to become more than a drawing. On 2 September 2026, that changed. The Junta de Andalucía confirmed the award of a new concession for a project expected to invest more than €200 million in the harbour and take its capacity from 268 berths to approximately 750. The new operator is due to take control of the existing port on 1 January 2027.
For a property buyer, the interesting part is not simply that Marbella will have more places to moor boats. La Bajadilla sits at the eastern edge of the urban centre, beside the beaches and residential streets that connect Marbella Pueblo with El Cable and, further east, Río Real. If the project is delivered broadly as announced, a waterfront that has long felt more functional than polished will gain a much larger marina, substantial parking, commercial activity, a working boatyard and infrastructure for larger yachts. That is an urban change as much as a nautical one.
It is also a useful test of how buyers should read big infrastructure announcements on the Costa del Sol. The right question is not “how much will prices rise?” There is no honest percentage for that. The better question is what daily inconvenience disappears, what new activity arrives and whether the surrounding district becomes more attractive for the way a second-home owner or permanent resident actually uses Marbella.
Sixteen Years of Paperwork, Then a Very Different Port
La Bajadilla today is a mixed sporting and fishing harbour rather than a luxury marina masquerading as a shopping centre. Marbella’s own tourism information lists 268 berths, and the working character remains obvious around the fishing quay, service areas and boatyard. That is part of the place’s identity, and the newly announced scheme is not designed to erase it: the published project retains fishing facilities and a varadero alongside the expanded leisure marina.
What changes is the scale. The Junta says the protected water area will increase by almost three and a half times. Berths rise by roughly 482, or about 180% relative to today’s 268. The new marina is intended to accommodate leisure craft through to large yachts of up to 70 metres, placing La Bajadilla in a different operating category from the existing harbour.
The significance of the September decision is therefore less the promise — versions of an expanded port have circulated for years — than the administrative step. Regional authorities say the project was first tendered 16 years ago, later stalled, and was taken up again in 2019 through environmental, coastal and legal procedures before the new concession was awarded. A January 2027 takeover does not mean a finished 750-berth marina in January. It does mean the project has moved into a more concrete phase than the long period in which buyers could reasonably treat La Bajadilla expansion as background noise.
Not Puerto Banús 2.0 — and That Is the Point
The temptation is to describe every ambitious marina west of Málaga as “the next Puerto Banús”. It is usually lazy shorthand. Puerto Banús has had more than half a century to build a global identity around luxury retail, nightlife and the spectacle of the quayside. Its own current information lists more than 900 berths — 915 in its 2026 published material — across 15 hectares of sheltered water, with close to 100 luxury boutiques and millions of annual visitors.
La Bajadilla has a different opportunity. It is much closer to Marbella’s traditional town centre and Old Town, and it begins with a working harbour rather than a purpose-built luxury enclave. The proposed mix of marina, fishing activity, commercial space, boatyard and parking could give it a more everyday role. For buyers who like central Marbella but do not necessarily want the full Puerto Banús experience outside the front door, that distinction matters.
