The growing presence of foreigners in the Spanish property market has been blamed by many for shortages and surging prices, but new data shows that non-Spanish buyers – in particular non-residents – are purchasing fewer homes.
Property purchases by foreign nationals in Spain recorded their sharpest decline since the Covid-19 pandemic began, new data published this week shows.
Transactions fell by 13 percent to 62,327 sales, compared with the 71,625 recorded in the same period the previous year.
That represents 9,298 fewer transactions and the sharpest year-on-year decline since the first half of 2020, when Covid-19 restrictions caused the market to plummet.
This is according to statistics published on Thursday by Spain’s General Council of Notaries.
The decline is significantly greater than that recorded amongst Spanish buyers, whose purchases fell by 7.3 percent.
Overall, the market recorded 341,283 sales of private-sector homes, 8.4 percent fewer than a year earlier, with a particularly sharp slowdown amongst foreign buyers.
This difference was also reflected in the share of foreign demand within the Spanish property market.
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Foreign buyers accounted for 18.3 percent of sales, almost one percentage point less than the 19.2 percent recorded in the first half of 2025 and three points below the peak of 21.3 percent reached in 2023.
During Spain’s anti-tourism and housing protests, the growing presence of foreign buyers in the market was widely blamed for soaring prices.
The decline was particularly sharp amongst foreigners who are not residents in Spain, a group more closely associated with the purchase of second homes and holiday properties.
Their property transactions fell by 18 percent, from 27,988 to 22,940, representing 5,048 fewer transactions.
Foreign residents, meanwhile, purchased 39,387 homes, 9.7 percent fewer than a year earlier.
Consequently, non-residents account for more than half of the total decline in foreign purchases, despite representing only 36.8 percent of the transactions carried out by non-Spaniards.
Nonetheless, foreign demand is still contributing to price rises in some of Spain’s most stressed residential markets.
The Balearic Islands recorded the highest price, at €5,344 per square metre, up 9.3 percent.
This was followed by Madrid, at €4,379 and a rise of 15.4 per cent. In the Valencian Community, the average price rose by 15.6 per cent to €2,240 per square metre.
Only two regions bucked the trend: La Rioja, where the average price paid by foreign buyers fell by 5.5 per cent to €882 per square metre, and Navarre, with a 4.8 per cent drop to €1,253.
Cantabria (+23 percent) and Asturias (+22.3 percent) recorded the largest increases.
Property sales fall across most of Spain, notary data shows.
Fifteen of the 17 regions recorded falls in the number of overall property sales, which were particularly sharp in some of the destinations that traditionally attract the most international demand.
