MARBELLA CLUB

Between the beaches and the jagged peaks of the Sierra Blanca mountains sits Marbella’s old town – its Moorish casco antiguo – an unexpected pocket of peaceful, cobble-stoned charm and antiquity among the southern Spanish resort town’s modern mix of working local life and tourist trappings.

Most buyers in this part of the Costa del Sol scuttle to the holiday complexes near the beach or villas in the hills – homes with pools, lawns and parking spaces. But Marbella’s historic centre, an enclave of whitewashed houses, shady squares and family-owned restaurants, offers something that a new development never can.

This is where you come for character and the buzz of Spanish life on the doorstep, from the pavement cafés and tapas bars – squeezed into alleys narrow enough to lean out of your window and shake hands with your neighbour opposite – to the local fiestas that take over the streets.

The appeal was instant for Diane Langford, 64, and her partner Johny Taylor, 69, from Bingham, near Nottingham. Not only have they found a characterful holiday home in their 150-year-old house on Calle Lobatas, they have also found a way to bring in year-round rental income that many second home owners in the area can only dream of.

“When we started house-hunting in Marbella in 2005, agents kept fobbing us off with off-plan properties. We wanted an older property that we could refurbish ourselves in the historic quarter, which has a wonderful atmosphere,” says Diane, who runs a gift shop in Bingham.