The latest figures show that foreign property buyers continue to break records in Spain, representing a bigger share of the purchasing market than ever as authorities register a drop in buys among Spanish nationals.
Property acquisitions by foreigners grew by 11 percent in Spain between April and June of this year, according to the latest data released by Spain’s College of Property Registrars.
Foreigners purchased a total of 26,800 properties during that time, which represented 15.98 percent of all transactions in Spain, the highest percentage on record.
READ ALSO: Why are property prices in Spain rising twice as fast than in the EU?
Purchases made by Spaniards on the other hand fell from 147,000 in the second quarter of 2025 to 141,100 in the same period of 2026, representing a year-on-year decrease of nearly four percent.
The current growth is mainly driven by foreign residents – these are people likely buying a home to live in permanently, rather than non-residents purchasing a holiday home. Purchases by non-residents only increased by 3.3 percent.
It makes sense that foreign residents represent a bigger share of the Spanish property pie as their numbers have increased exponentially in recent years.
Spain’s foreign resident population is now over 10 million, representing roughly 20.3 percent of the total population as of early 2026, according to the country’s national stats body (INE).
READ ALSO: Why so many different types of foreigners are choosing to move to Spain
This comes in the context of Spain’s current housing crisis, which has many causes. Although migration is proving to be essential to maintaining Spain’s otherwise shrinking population, economy and welfare pot, more people undoubtedly means more competition, especially when not enough new homes are being built.
The number of residents from South American countries buying in Spain in particular surged by 42 percent, while those from Romania grew by 24 percent, followed by those from Morocco by 20 percent.
According to Spain’s College of Property Registrars buyers from EU countries accounted for 57.39 percent of purchases, compared to 16.75 percent from other European countries.
READ ALSO: AI can’t agree if Spain’s property prices will drop
When it comes to non-residents buying a second home in Spain, the Brits still lead the way with more purchases than any other nationality, however, the Dutch are catching up fast, now almost on par with the British.
British second-home buyers made 1,843 transactions, registering a tiny year-on-year growth of 0.7 percent.
Dutch buyers on the other hand made 1,830 transactions, which is 20.2 percent more than in the second quarter of 2025 and 14.1 percent more than during the first three months of this year.
Those from the UK now account for 6.99 of the non-resident market, while those from the Netherlands account for 6.94 percent.
Germany comes in next among second-home owners with 1,612 transactions and year-on-year growth of 3.8 percent.
French and Polish buyers also saw increases at 7.9 and 7.8 percent, respectively.
Some nationalities do seem to be pulling away from the Spanish holiday home dream, however. Those from Belgium registered the largest decline, with a drop of 17.6 percent, followed by Russians with -5.4 percent and the Swedish with -2.9 percent.
READ ALSO: What you should know before building a swimming pool at your Spanish home
Where are foreigners buying in Spain?
The Balearic Islands and Valencian continue to be the most popular destinations for foreign buyers. According to the data, foreign purchases in these regions accounted for 32.27 percent of transactions.
Alicante province still ranks as the top place in the country for foreign buyers with with 5,710 transactions during the second quarter of 2026.
Foreigners accounted for almost half of all the property transactions in the province at 46.43 percent.
Málaga is also extremely popular, where foreign buyers made 3,474 transactions during the second quarter – that’s an increase of 20.79 percent more than in the same period of 2025.
International demand now accounts for 37.01 percent of all home sales in the province.
READ ALSO: Seven in ten homes empty in Spain’s villages in midst of national housing crisis
