2025 ......So Far

The most reliable property market statistics in Spain are those compiled by the Notaries and released half yearly. This means there’s a time lag for full year figures, usually available in March/April of the following year, with the first half of the year showing up in October of the same year. The 2025 numbers have just landed, comparing the first half with the same period in 2024. It seems that the trends we saw emerging in 2024 have continued on into 2025 in most cases.

The good news is that the number of overseas buyers has continued to increase, by roughly 2%, to 71,155 and spending, as measured by € pm2, is also up, by about 5%. I think it’s also worth noting that the growth rate seems to have returned to a more normal level, more in line with the three years 2017/18/2019 during which it was between 1.5% and 3%, rather than the higher growth rates in the post-Covid surge years. The 19.3% share of total transactions in Spain’s property market is down 1% on the same period in 2024 but only 0.6% down if compared to 2024 full-year statistics.

The Who

Who’s who in the 71,155 overseas buyers in 2025 so far? Just by a whisker the British maintained #1 in the nationality league table with 5,731 but it was close, with Moroccans on their heels, #2 with 5,674. Then came the Germans, #3 with 4,756, Rumanians #4 at 4,480 and Dutch #5, with 4,166. In addition, the Dutch market rose strongly, 18% up since 2024 it one of the highest risers. The biggest rise was seen from Portugal, up 22.8% while the number of buyers from the US is up 14.3% but it’s important to bear in mind these are relatively small players in the overall overseas sector - 1,141 Portuguese and 1,564 from the US. 

These latest figures show the trend towards more overseas resident buyers and fewer non-residents continues, with the split now being 61% resident and 39% non-resident. That doesn’t mean to say all the resident overseas buyers live in Spain permanently but it does indicate they spend a significant part of each year in the country. However, the split varies a lot depending on the nationality. In the case of the league leaders 42% of British buyers are now counted as residents and 58% are second home owners spending less that 183 days per year in Spain. That’s a big change when compared with 20 years ago when 80% of British buyers were non-resident. But in the case of second place Moroccans 98.3% are residents, economic migrants  predominantly buying in towns and cities away from the most expensive coastal regions. 

And when we look at what the various nationalities spend on their property purchase we see a very different league table emerge, highlighting that raw figures don’t mean much and you need to dig deeper to get a fuller picture and, sometimes, some really surprising numbers.

The Where

On average overseas buyers are spending €2,417 per square metre in 2025, up 7.6% on the year and 34% more than the domestic average of €1,804 pm². However, when overseas buyers are separated into resident and non-resident groups, there’s a big difference; foreign residents are only 5.7% ahead of the domestic average while non-resident foreigners outspend domestic buyers by 73%.

In the case of the nationality league leaders, the British non-resident buyer is spending an average €2,795 pm², up 12.3% year-on-year while resident Brits average spend pm² rose only 1.6% to €2,442 in the same period.  Buyers from the US represented only 2.2% of the overseas sector of Spain’s property market in the first half of 2025 but they headed the spending league table with an average spend of €3,465 per square metre, which rises to €3,697 pm² for non-resident US buyers. However, they were knocked off the top spot by Chinese non-resident buyers spending an average €4,116 pm² but 85% of all Chinese buyers are resident, spending approximately half of that number - €2,081 pm². And at the other end of the spending league table? That would be the Moroccans stuck firmly at the bottom with an average spend pm² of only €747. 

At the start of 2025, the current Spanish government discussed bringing forward legislation to ban all non-EU, non-resident buyers from the property market, which, apparently, would solve Spain’s housing shortage.  I think these statistics are useful as they show what a ridiculous idea it is. Taking the average domestic spend of €1,804 pm² it’s clear that overseas non-resident buyers,  with an average spend of €3,465 pm², irrespective of whether they are EU or non-EU citizens, are not competing for the same properties with the average domestic buyer. If anyone is squeezing them out of the market it is the lower-spending foreigners, such as the Moroccans, Romanians, Bulgarians and South Americans who are to blame. They are the competition, not the high-spending non-resident foreign buyers and as almost all the foreign buyers at the lower end of the market are resident economic migrants, any legislation banning non-residents from the market wouldn’t apply to them in any case. 

The Where

If the question is where are overseas buyers choosing to spend their money, the answer is the same places as before. Nothing has changed and these statistics for the first half of 2025 show very clearly that the 71,155 overseas buyers between January and June are concentrated in just a few areas and are not spread evenly around the country. Turns out that 56,614 bought in just 4 regions on the mainland, specifically those with Mediterranean coastlines or in the Balearics or Canaries. So, a total of 51,985 headed for the Med, plus 4,629 in the Canaries, making a total of 56, 614, 80% of the total number of overseas buyers in the period.

Of the total overseas market 29% bought in the Comunidad Valenciana, 19% in Andalucía, 16% in Cataluña, 6.5% in the Canary Islands, 5.5% in Murcia and 4% in the Balearics.

The next update will be in March/April 2026 when we will get the full-year 2025 numbers and based on what we have so far for 2025 it seems that demand from overseas buyers continues to grow in the traditional hotspots, albeit at a slower rate that in recent years and that prices are still trending higher. © Barbara Wood

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