Overseas Buyers 2024

We now know the 2024 total of overseas buyers in Spain not only beat 2023 but beat it easily, from 131,288 to an all-time high of 139,102, a 5.9% increase. In the three years just before Covid-19 arrived, 2017-2019, annual growth in the overseas sector of the Spanish property market averaged 1.5%. The 2024 total is a 5.9% increase over 2023, a significant upturn in the growth rate. One of the factors behind this increased rate of growth is the long-established traditional markets from northern Europe have been joined by other nationalities that barely registered previously and all the signs are that these groups will continue to grow. Spain's property market is now truly global.

The notaries started counting foreign buyers by nationality in 2007. Prior to that we didn’t know much other than there were lots and lots of Brits compared with other nationalities. In fact, starting in the 1960s, the British made up about 80% of all foreign buyers in Spain until around the mid-1990s when other nationalities began to enter the market in greater numbers. However, we didn’t have an official count until 2007 and every year since then the British have been the nationality league leaders. Although I keep expecting to see the British knocked off the top spot they are hanging in there. The nationality breakdown for 2024 left them in 1st place with 11,912 purchases, 8.6% of all foreign buyers but 4.4% fewer purchases than in 2023. So far, so normal, but there are big changes happening lower down the league table. Previously, I would have expected to see either the French or Germans in the next two spots, they switched around on a regular basis, but not any more it seems.  Buyers from Morocco took 2nd place, with 10,512 purchases and 7.5% foreign market share, pushing the Germans (9,360, down 5.75%) into 3rd place, Romanians (8,125) were 4th, Italians (8,398 up 4.4%) 5th and the French slipped to 6th (7,849, down down 8.75%).

I think the increase in buyers from countries such as Morocco, Romania, Colombia and Ecuador is behind another notable change in the overseas market in Spain.  It was the case that much of the overseas sector was based on second home ownership but it’s now clear the balance has changed, with more purchases linked to permanent residence. In just the last decade there’s been a noticeable shift in the ratio between resident and non-resident foreign buyers. In 2015, 51% of foreign buyers were non-resident second home owners but the 2024 statistics show that’s dropped to 41%. For example, two decades ago 77% of British buyers were second home owners, today that has fallen to 60% with 40% classed as resident foreign owners. But when you dig into the 2024 statistics relating to the Moroccan market. it turns out that 98.1% were buying as residents, for Romanians the figure was 89%, Colombians and Ecuadorians were on 97.2% and 93.4% respectively and for Venezuelans it was 97.1%, all much higher than the 59% national average of foreign resident property buyers. So perhaps what’s really changed is that many more foreign buyers in Spain are more likely to be economic migrants that previously.

What really stands out about the nationality statistics now is just how much some markets have expanded in the 18 years since 2007 when the notaries started collating where the overseas buyers were coming from. Back in 2007, Poland didn’t even register as a separate country, they came under the ‘EU others’ group but in 2024 they experienced the biggest increase y-o-y in the nationality league, up 36% with 5,947 buyers. And the numbers from some countries have exploded since 2007; both the Moroccan and Romanians numbers have more than tripled while there were five time more buyers from China than there were in 2007. However, when it comes to what all these foreigners spend the result is a very different league table  which I’l cover in my next blog.

^{©Barbara Wood}

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