Once the darling of the Spanish real estate market, the past two years have seen demand for property in Marbella fall well below the all conquering highs of 2007. However, recent signs have suggested that the green shoots of recovery may slowly be emerging for the Marbella property industry. Indeed only recently, one of the region's largest property developers, Taylor Wimpey Espana, reported a 150% increase in sales throughout the Marbella region in comparison with the previous year.

With the market beginning to show the green shoots of recovery, it is felt that there are a number of strong reasons why the demand for property in Marbella will continue for the foreseeable future. In particular, the painful and highly controversial issue regarding illegal property in the region, which has now been permanently resolved. Previously it was thought that an estimated 18,000 properties in the region were illegally built, and would therefore need to be demolished. The new Administration however has now legalised over 17,000 of the disputed properties, in return for specific 'community orientated' projects and donations to be fulfilled by the developers in question.

As the new administration looks to draw a line under this controversial chapter in Marbella's history, the new mayor, Ángeles Muñoz has more recently talked about Marbella's commitment to making it a city more open to foreign direct investment in the future. With the issues of the disputed properties now laid to rest, the region's major property developers are slowly beginning to start work on new developments which looks set to reinvigorate the Marbella property market. With these new developments likely to kickstart a series of promotional campaigns for both the regions and the properties, it looks set to be the beginning of a new era for the Marbella property market.

Challenges undoubtedly still lie ahead, however the demand for property in Marbella and the surrounding towns has proven particularly resilient over the past two years, and as issues slowly become resolved it is likely that this demand will translate into property sales once more. Slowly, pessimism is changing into optimism amongst the real estate industry in southern Spain, and as hurdles are steadily removed it is likely that Marbella will become the darling of the Spanish property market once again.