A Churriana villa with a fig tree, a wood oven and a pool

Some houses are about the view, and some are about the kitchen. This one, in Churriana, is about the garden and the long, unhurried days that happen in it. Plum, fig, quince, cherimoya, lemon and grapevines: the plot is planted like someone meant to eat from it.

The villa itself is a Mediterranean house with Andalusian and Moorish leanings, all arches, an ornamental fountain, and earthy tones lifted by deep red. It dates from 2006 and has 426 square metres of living space on a plot of 982, with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a private pool. It has a clear sense of identity, and we think it deserves a slow look.

A house with a point of view

Most new-build villas on the coast aim to be neutral. This one does not. The arches frame the way you move from room to room and out to the terraces, and the fountain gives the garden a focal point you can hear before you see it.

The materials follow the same logic. The floors inside are Macael marble, the white Andalusian stone that has been quarried in Almería for centuries, and the bathrooms are finished in travertine. Outside, the terraces are laid in traditional terracotta with mosaic details, which is the right surface for bare feet in July.

The listing gives the condition as good, and the marble underfoot suggests a house built to last rather than to impress for a season. As with any home of this size, you will want to see it in person to judge how it has aged.

Living in it, room by room

The main floor is where daily life gathers. The living and dining room is generous, around 42 square metres, with a fireplace that will matter on the cooler evenings of a Málaga winter. Beside it, the kitchen is about 20.7 square metres and opens straight onto the garden, so a bowl of figs or a handful of lemons is a few steps from the counter.

The kitchen is listed as partially fitted, which is an invitation rather than a flaw. Anyone who cooks seriously will have opinions about where the hob and the worktops should go, and a kitchen this size gives you room to act on them.

The main floor also holds a bedroom of around 12 square metres. Beyond that, the fact sheet tells us the house has fitted wardrobes, air conditioning, fibre optic and WiFi, plus a games room, a storage room and a utility room. Those last three are the quiet luxuries of a big family house, the places where the bicycles, the suitcases and the laundry can live without taking over.

The garden, the pool and the oven

This is the heart of it. The pool is around 35 square metres, private, and looks out over the garden, and the listing also records sea and panoramic views. The house faces east, which in general means the garden gets the morning first, a good arrangement for coffee outside before the day heats up.

Then there is the covered entertaining space, a purpose-built, enclosed area of about 27 square metres with its own bathroom and a traditional wood-fired oven. It is the sort of room that changes how a household lives. Pizza on a Friday, a whole fish or a shoulder of lamb on a Sunday, and the guests never need to trek through the house.

The covered terrace and a private terrace add more shade and more places to sit. The fruit is the part we would walk the garden for:

• Plum, fig and quince, for jam and for the table
• Cherimoya, a fruit most northern Europeans have never eaten off the tree
• Lemons, which a coastal kitchen uses daily
• Grapevines, for shade as much as grapes

There is private parking, with room for more than one car.

Churriana, a village inside the city

Churriana sits on the western side of Málaga, and administratively it belongs to the city, though it still feels like a village with its own church, its own streets and its own pace. Local tradition links the area with Cervantes, and the writer Gerald Brenan made his home here in the twentieth century, which tells you something about the kind of quiet it has long offered.

The agent places the villa about 13 kilometres from the centre of Málaga. The fact sheet lists shops, town, schools and transport as close, and the sea too. The beaches of Los Álamos and Torremolinos are a short drive away, which means a morning swim or a lunch at a chiringuito does not need much planning. If you like a walk on the sand followed by grilled sardines, you are well placed.

The airport is also close, which is a real convenience if you travel often or host visitors. It is worth visiting at different times of day, and listening, so you know how the flight paths feel from the terrace.

What to ask when you look

A house of 426 square metres on nearly a thousand square metres of land is a way of life as well as a purchase. A mature garden with fruit trees and a pool gives back a great deal, and it also asks for steady attention. The questions below will help you picture the years ahead:

• How is the garden kept now, and what does it need through the year?
• Which rooms sit on which level, and how do they connect?
• Where exactly do you see the sea from, and from which terrace?
• What would you change in the kitchen first?

These are the questions a local expert can answer on the spot, standing in the garden.

If it caught your eye

The asking price is 1,045,000 euros. Penrose Bay is not an estate agency and this home is not ours. We are simply showing you something worth seeing, and if it speaks to you, we can introduce you to the local expert who knows it well.

Get in touch and mention reference R5517187, and we will make the introduction. You can take your time, ask your questions, and see whether a fig tree and a wood oven belong in your next chapter.