The accommodation runs over two floors above ground, plus a fully buried basement. Downstairs, a 37.07 m\u00b2 living and dining room opens onto the porch, the terrace and the pool; alongside it, the kitchen, a 9.25 m\u00b2 study and a guest suite with its own bedroom and bathroom. Upstairs, the principal bedroom with dressing room and en-suite, and a 14.12 m\u00b2 covered terrace enclosed on two sides. An internal courtyard tempers the light through the day and helps cross-ventilation. That adds up to 135.83 m\u00b2 built above ground, 28.52 m\u00b2 of covered outdoor space and 16.73 m\u00b2 under pergola, with a 45.34 m\u00b2 pool and parking within the plot.<\/p>\n
From project to building licence<\/h2>\n
The outline project (proyecto b\u00e1sico<\/em>) was certified by the M\u00e1laga Architects\u2019 Association. Planning issued an unfavourable report, we redrew the outline project, it was certified and the report turned favourable. The technical construction project (proyecto de ejecuci\u00f3n<\/em>) was certified next, reported favourably, and the roads and works department signed off. Somewhere in there the plot\u2019s postal address changed, and we had to file a clarifying note so that the project and the cadastre agreed.<\/p>\n This is the part buyers tend to underestimate. On a detached house of this size the permitting calendar weighs as much as the building calendar, and it is better said out loud at the start than explained away at the end.<\/p>\n The first was to drop the house. With the setting-out already pegged, we shifted the volume and lowered the house by 50 cm, to level 91.70, to bring the separation from the private boundary to the 3.00 m required by the U-4 detached-housing rules of the Benalm\u00e1dena general plan (PGOU<\/em>). The side effect turned out better than the reason for it: dropping the house gained terrace area around the pool. The perimeter ramp that had been drawn was left out, the whole terrace came out on one level with a planting bed, and the new change in height was absorbed by the vehicle ramp, with the boundary wall elevation adjusted to suit. A surveyor set out the shift, and it is all recorded in the completion certificate (certificado final de obra<\/em>).<\/p>\n The second was the basement. The outline project showed 41.23 m\u00b2. It ended up at 117.46 m\u00b2 built, with an open storeroom of 101.67 m\u00b2 usable floor area. Because it is fully buried it does not count towards buildable floor area (edificabilidad<\/em>), so the house grew downwards without touching the plot\u2019s development rights or the volume you see from the street. It was handed over as a shell, in polished concrete and rendered walls, reached only from within the plot by a ramp starting near the gate.<\/p>\n The fa\u00e7ade is a cavity wall insulated externally: 60 mm of extruded polystyrene, a half-brick outer leaf in perforated clay, a cavity and an inner leaf of hollow brick. It is finished in cement render with masonry paint and ceramic cladding to the panels shown on the drawings, a continuous white finish with occasional timber elements. Windows are anthracite-grey anodised aluminium with 4-12-6+6 double glazing and solar control to the south and west elevations. The roof is an inverted flat roof with a PVC membrane and 40 mm of XPS. Inside, porcelain stoneware and plasterboard ceilings; outside, printed concrete and low-water Mediterranean planting. The structure is reinforced concrete \u2014 pad and strip footings, retaining walls and waffle slabs \u2014 on ground with an allowable bearing pressure of 2.9 kp\/cm\u00b2 from the geotechnical survey.<\/p>\n The house was built by its owner: both the setting-out record and the completion certificate list the contractor as self-build (autoconstrucci\u00f3n<\/em>). That changes what site supervision means \u2014 instead of coordinating a construction firm you resolve the job decision by decision, visit by visit. Work finished on 21 June 2024, after twenty months on site. Site management and health and safety coordination were carried out by the quantity surveyor (arquitecto t\u00e9cnico<\/em>) Jos\u00e9 Jim\u00e9nez de la Paz.<\/p>\n It ran without incident, and that is on the record: the statements certified by the M\u00e1laga surveyors\u2019 association on 3 July 2024 confirm the works were completed without any entry needing to be made in the site instruction book (libro de \u00f3rdenes<\/em>) or the site incident book. The completion certificate was signed on 21 June 2024 and certified by the M\u00e1laga Architects\u2019 Association on 9 July.<\/p>\nTwo decisions taken on site<\/h2>\n
Materials and construction<\/h2>\n
Gallery<\/h2>\n
![\"Exterior](\"https:\/\/www.klicarquitectos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/casa-leala-vivienda-unifamiliar-arroyo-de-la-miel-benalmadena-infografia.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n![\"Ground](\"https:\/\/www.klicarquitectos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Vivienda-La-Leala-06_Planta-baja-1_page-0001-scaled.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\nProject data<\/h2>\n
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Other projects by Klic Arquitectos<\/h2>\n