DANIEL Ek could soon join a growing list of the super rich who have snapped up property on the Costa del Sol in recent years.
The billionaire founder of Spotify, 41, has been spotted shopping for villas on the Golden Mile in Marbella.
The Swede is said to be rather taken with a €30million property dubbed El Bosque (the forest) in the exclusive Santa Margarita urbanisation, near the exclusive Marbella Club.
However the Olive Press can reveal that he has also been looking at homes in La Zagaleta, in neighbouring Benahavis.
READ MORE: Benahavis sees average property price surpass €2m for the first time
La Zagaleta is a 900-hectare estate that sits between Marbella and the foothills of the Serrania de Ronda.
One Scandinavian resident told the Olive Press: “Daniel has been renting around Marbella for some months and is now looking to buy… He has been looking here in La Zagaleta.
“Like many billionaires he is attracted to the top notch security and luxury the estate provides.”
La Zagaleta has often been described as ‘southern Europe’s most exclusive place to live’.
And when you count on the celebrities, captains of industry and the global dictators who allegedly stalk its privileged spaces, that’s no surprise.
The multi-million price tags certainly follow suit, as does its incredible golf course, which has just a few hundred people allowed to play… and then there’s its intriguing recent links to Russian dictator Vladamir Putin, who is rumoured to own a property there.
The giant 2000sqm palace, known as the Rock of the King (or Roca del Rey) counts on its own private vineyard, helicopter pad and bowling alley.
But it’s the three floors underground that has got eyebrows raised among Europe’s security and defence elite.
As revealed exclusively by the Olive Press in 2022, it counts on armed guards and has a deep bunker monitoring the Straits of Gibraltar 24/7.
Indeed, security is of so much importance that after a late-night incident in 2021, an Israeli company was commissioned to build a new ‘high tech electric’ fence.
It came after Head of security Jose Miguel Navarro boasted that his team have a ‘maximum response time of three minutes to any alert’.
The estate was originally called ‘La Baraka’ and was owned by disgraced billionaire Saudi arms dealer, Adnan Khashoggi, who was said to have held some of the world’s most debauched parties at the hunting lodge in the 1970s.
Today his house is the clubhouse of the resort, which was acquired by a group of investors in 1989 led by Andalucian banker, Enrique Perez Flores, who came from Huelva.
The giant estate was then divided into approximately 420 plots.
All surrounded by deep woodland, they have either sea or mountain views (or both), while there is also a private equestrian center and golf course.
The amazing course, said to be one of the best in Spain, only counts on 250 members, which is because only homeowners can join.
One British agent previously told the Olive Press: “The price for membership alone is €120,000 and then it’s €10,000 a year for the lead member and €7,000 for the second member of the family.
“It’s real royal golf and the attitudes of the locals are to match… It’s ultra exclusive and so snobby, way more than the Chelsea or Cheshire set.
“Owners put €10,000 behind the club bar so they can always get a drink or cigar when they want and the place is literally crawling with Aston Martins, and DB4s and McClarens.”
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