Málaga ranks 11th worldwide for data centres: what it changes for housing

Malaga is the eleventh best city in the world in which to build a data centre, according to the Power and Place report published by Savills in 2026. It sits ahead of Madrid in 20th place and Barcelona in 28th, and ranks third in southern Europe and seventh across the continent. This is not local marketing spin: it follows directly from cheap energy, spare grid capacity, available land and planning rules that do not block projects.

Why does Málaga come out ahead of Madrid and Barcelona?

Because the industry has changed the question it asks. For years what mattered was where demand was, and that favoured the big capitals. Now, with the explosion of artificial intelligence, what matters is where it is physically possible to build: where there are available megawatts, water, land and permits. On that board, secondary cities hold the advantage.

Savills groups its criteria into three blocks, and Málaga scores well across all of them:

• Energy, water and climate: availability and cost of electricity, water resources and temperatures. Málaga's summers are milder than Madrid's, which cuts cooling costs — the single largest operating expense of a data centre.
• Connectivity and economic environment: access to digital networks and construction costs.
• Development viability: availability of land and planning frameworks that let a project actually be delivered on schedule.

There is also an advantage that never makes it into the brochures: in Málaga there is less local competition for electricity. In Madrid, a data centre fights for megawatts against the entire industrial and logistics base of the region; here it does not.

How much money are we talking about?

A great deal. Installed data centre capacity across the Iberian peninsula has more than quadrupled since 2019 according to CBRE, and the deliverable medium-term pipeline is estimated at 4.5 GW of IT load. Bank of America projects 4.14 GW of capacity by 2030, with associated electricity demand of 21 TWh. Spain starts from a strong position: some of the most competitive power costs in Western Europe and net exporter status, with renewables making up a large share of its mix.

A data centre of any meaningful scale involves hundreds of millions of euros and commits land and infrastructure for decades. That is why this report matters more than it might seem: it does not describe an intention, it describes where the foundations will be poured.

What does a data centre have to do with house prices?

Less than the headline suggests, and more than first appears. It is worth separating two effects.

The direct effect is limited: a data centre generates a lot of investment but relatively few permanent jobs, mostly technical and security roles. Nobody buys a flat in Málaga because a server hall goes up on the outskirts.

The indirect effect does carry weight, and it has been at work for years. Data centres are foundational infrastructure: where they are built, the companies that need that latency and reliability follow. Málaga has spent a decade building that ecosystem — a technology park, regional headquarters of sector multinationals, cybersecurity — and each new layer attracts qualified professionals earning above the local average. That is the demand that has pushed prices up in Málaga city and its surroundings, and it explains why Torremolinos, Benalmádena or Fuengirola stopped being purely holiday markets and became permanent homes for people working in the capital.

These are the current median prices across the metropolitan area, drawn from our own catalogue of 8,789 properties listed for sale on the Costa del Sol:

Note the gap: a square metre in the nearby inland towns costs less than half what it does on the coast. If qualified employment keeps growing in the capital while front-line coastal housing stays tight, the second ring — Alhaurín, Coín, the Guadalhorce valley — is where the price runway remains. It is the pattern already seen in Dublin, Lisbon and Marseille once urban land ran out.

Where is the risk?

It is worth not buying the whole narrative. A data centre consumes water and electricity in a region already under water stress, and public opposition to these projects is growing across Europe. Savills ranking Málaga 11th means it is attractive to developers, not that every project will be built: the grid has to keep up, planning has to allow it, and water consumption has to fit genuine availability. Any of those three fronts can stop the film.

For a home buyer the message is more measured: this data point reinforces a trend that already existed, it does not launch a bubble. Málaga has spent years consolidating its position as southern Europe's tech hub, and the Savills report is one more confirmation, not a turning point.

What to look at if you are considering investing in Málaga

• Proximity to employment, not to the beach: in the long-term rental market what governs is commuting time to the technology park and the city centre, not the sea view.
• The second ring rather than the front line: a lower entry price and more upside if pressure from the capital keeps pushing inland.
• Housing for residents, not just tourists: technical professionals rent year-round, with less turnover and less exposure to regulatory changes in holiday lets.
• Confirmed infrastructure, not announced infrastructure: distinguish between projects with permits and a granted grid connection and those that only have a press release.

At EVS Property Group we work with real price data by town and district, updated monthly, and we can tell you what is genuinely being paid where you are looking, how much negotiating room a specific property has and what rental yield it is reasonable to expect. If you want to act on Málaga's momentum with figures on the table rather than headlines, let's talk.

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