Home purchases by foreigners increased by 2% this year and reached almost 20% of the total.
Unsubsidized housing purchases by foreign citizens increased by 2% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, reaching 71,155 sales. This is a record high, according to official data from the General Council of Notaries. Overall, one in five unsubsidized housing purchases is made by non-Spanish families or investors. This represents 19.3%.
The trend is clear: foreigners account for a significant share of the real estate market, especially in the country's most attractive areas, and are responsible for an increasing number of sales. In the first half of 2024, they were responsible for 69,000 transactions, and in 2023, 68,000. This figure for this first half of the year is surpassed by that recorded in the same period in 2022, when more than 73,000 purchases were closed. Overall, foreigners accounted for 20% of purchases in 2024 and 21% in 2023.
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Foreign residents in Spain accounted for 61% of transactions in the first half of 2025, 6% more than in the same period last year, while non-residents accounted for the remaining 39%, representing a 4% year-over-year decline.
The areas of Spain most in demand by foreign home buyers in the first half of the year, according to notary data, were the Valencian Community, with 11,025 transactions (one in four); Andalusia, with 6,733 (24%); the Canary Islands, with 2,666 (10%); and Catalonia, with 2,351 (8%).
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By nationality, the largest number of sales in the first half of 2025 corresponded, as usual, to citizens of the United Kingdom, with 5,731 transactions (8% of the total), followed by Morocco with 5,654 (8%) and Germany with 4,756 (7%).
Foreigners who buy homes in Spain are also paying increasingly higher prices. Thus, sales made by non-Spanish citizens saw considerable average price increases. The highest prices were in Madrid (17%), La Rioja (16%), and the Canary Islands (14%). In Catalonia, they paid 11% more. The average price paid by foreign buyers reached 3,126 euros per square meter.
The government proposed a 100% tax on home purchases by foreigners, which would double the cost of the transaction. However, the proposal, which caused some commotion in the real estate sector, lacks the necessary votes to pass in Parliament.
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