New data shows that some parts of Spain usually overlooked by overseas buyers are becoming much more popular, with the northern region of Asturias leading the way.
New data shows that the share of foreign buyers purchasing property in Spain has fallen slightly overall.
Foreigners accounted for 13.58 percent of total home purchases between January and September 2025, according to data from Spain’s Land Registry. However, in 2023 they accounted for 14.98 percent of the total, a decrease of over 1 percent.
Just because the numbers have dipped slightly, doesn’t mean that it’s the same story throughout the country.
There are several regions in which the number of foreign buyers have increased, while others have seen decreases.
The latest data from Spain’s General Council of Notaries has revealed where saw the biggest increases and decreases.
The largest year-on-year increases up until the end of the first quarter of 2025 were seen in Asturias with a 30.8 percent rise and Castilla y León with a 25.9 percent rise.
This was followed by increases in Galicia by 14.3 percent, Castilla-La Mancha with 11.7 percent, Extremadura with 10.6 percent and Aragón with 10.4 percent.
La Rioja saw the number of foreign buyers increase by 9.9 percent year-on-year, while more moderate increases were seen in Catalonia with 7.1 percent, Andalusia with 6 percent, Cantabria with 5.5 percent, Murcia with 3.1 percent and the Basque Country with 2.4 percent.
Surprisingly, the capital region of Madrid only saw the number of foreign buyers increase by 0.1 percent.
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Conversely, declines for foreigner home buyers were observed in the Canary Islands with -7.7 percent, the Balearic Islands with -6.8 percent, Navarre with -3.7, and Valencia with -3.6. These contrast with the widespread increases recorded at the end of 2024.
Despite this notary data show that Valencia still leads the foreign home purchases in Spain, both by residents and non-residents, with over 20,000 transactions in the first half of 2025.
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According to La Caixa bank, the loss of appeal of some provinces in Catalonia, such as Girona and Tarragona is largely due to reduced interest from French buyers, who have traditionally been very present in this area but have begun to diversify their interest in favour of other Spanish provinces.
Some Andalusian provinces, such as Almería and Granada, have also lost appeal slightly, possibly to the benefit of other neighbouring provinces that have maintained their appeal or even seen it increase, such as Málaga and Murcia, among others.
There are several other reasons why some of the more traditional areas attracting the same number of foreign buyers as previous years. One of the main ones is price.
According to Spain’s National Statistics Institute, property prices in 2025 rose by 12.8 percent year-on-year, marking 42 consecutive quarterly increases.
Foreigners may be more interested in alternative regions such as Asturias and Castilla y León where they can get more of a bargain.
