The British Lead the Market

The number of transactions is growing by 2% year-over-year, according to notaries. The British lead the market, followed by Moroccans and Germans.

Home purchases by foreigners continue to grow in Spain. According to notary data, in the first half of the year, foreigners purchased 71,155 properties overall, 2% more than in the first half of 2024. This is the first time since the end of 2022 that the transaction volume has exceeded 70,000 units. 

Despite the renewed increase in transactions, the share of foreigners in the buying and selling market stood at 19.3% , one point lower than last year (20.3%) and two points behind the 2023 figure (21.3%). This is its lowest share in the last three and a half years.

Notarial statistics show that foreign residents accounted for 60.9% of transactions (43,306), with an increase of 6.4%, while non-residents accounted for the remaining 39.1% (27,849 transactions), in this case registering a decline of 4.1%. 

The British remain in the lead

The British remain the nationality that formalized the most housing transactions in the first half of 2025 with 5,731 transactions (8.1% of the total), followed by citizens from Morocco (5,654 sales, 7.9% of the total) and Germany (4,756 units, 6.7%). 

The next most prominent countries on the list are Italy (4,513), Romania (4,480), and the Netherlands (4,166), along with France (3,980) and Belgium (2,908). The other nationalities are already below the 2,800 sales mark.

However, the distribution varies depending on the type of residence. Among non-resident foreigners, the most common nationalities are the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, which accounted for the majority of sales. 

Non-resident Britons, for example, accounted for a large proportion of the transactions in Murcia (28.7%) and Andalusia (15.5%), while Germans played a significant role in the Balearic Islands (50%), Extremadura (29.6%), and the Canary Islands (22%). The Dutch, meanwhile, were particularly prominent in Murcia (15.2%) and the Valencian Community (14.9%); and the Belgians in Aragon (12.8%), Asturias (11.7%), and the Valencian Community (10.5%).

Among residents, Morocco has very high percentages in regions such as Murcia (38.7%), Navarra (37%), La Rioja (26.8%), Extremadura (23.5%) and Castilla-La Mancha (21.3%), while Romania registers significant percentages in Aragon (29.5%), Castilla-La Mancha (26.2%) and La Rioja (20.9%).

Italians, on the other hand, were particularly present in the Canary Islands (22.5%), the Balearic Islands (15.4%), Madrid (12.2%), and Catalonia (12.1%), while British residents were most prominent in Andalusia (12%) and Murcia (11.1%).

The average price breaks the previous high again

Homes purchased by foreigners in Spain during the first half of the year recorded an average price of €2,417/m2, a 7.6% year-on-year increase, marking the highest average in the historical series . This is the third consecutive high.

This figure is driven by the average price paid by non-resident foreigners , which for the first time rose above €3,100/m2, after growing 8% compared to last year. Residents, on the other hand, paid an average of €1,912/m2 for their homes, a 10.3% year-over-year increase, but still below the 2008 record.

If we look at the data by nationality, we discover that foreigners who paid the highest average amounts per square meter were those from the USA (3,465 euros/m2), Switzerland (3,457 euros/m2, Sweden (3,421 euros/m2), Norway (3,292 euros/m2) and Germany (3,270 euros/m2). 

Prices above the average for foreign buyers (2,417 euros/m2) were also recorded in nationalities such as Poland, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Ireland and the United Kingdom, while the lowest prices were observed in Morocco (747 euros/m2), Romania (1,325 euros/m2) and Ecuador (1,328 euros/m2).

The Valencian Community leads the transactions

Notary data places the Valencian Community as the region with the most home sales by foreigners, both residents and non-residents, with more than 20,000 transactions.

Among foreign residents, the Valencian Community led with 9,515 transactions (22% of the total), followed by Catalonia (8,909; 20.6%), Andalusia (6,677; 15.4%) and Madrid (4,620; 10.7%). 

For non-residents, the Valencian Community accounted for 11,025 transactions (39.6%). Andalusia was in second place with 6,733 units (24.2%), followed by the Canary Islands (2,666; 9.6%), Catalonia (2,351; 8.4%), and Murcia (2,121; 7.6%). The Balearic Islands contributed 6.6% and Madrid another 2%, while the rest of the Autonomous Communities recorded shares below 1%.

In terms of year-on-year growth, sales increased in almost all autonomous communities , with Asturias (30.8%) and Castilla y León (25.9%) leading the way, followed by Galicia (14.3%), Castilla-La Mancha (11.7%), Extremadura (10.6%), Aragón (10.4%), and La Rioja (9.9%). However, Catalonia (7.1%), Andalusia (6%), Cantabria (5.5%), Murcia (3.1%), the Basque Country (2.4%), and the Community of Madrid (0.1%) recorded more moderate increases. 

Four autonomous communities recorded a drop in home sales by foreigners in the first half of the year: the Canary Islands (-7.7%), the Balearic Islands (-6.8%), Navarre (-3.7%), and the Valencian Community (-3.6%). These declines contrast “with the widespread increases recorded in the previous half of the year,” the notaries conclude. 

Data from the General Council of Notaries