Foreign buyers completed 62,327 purchases of free-market homes in Spain during the first half of 2026, a 13.0% decrease compared with the same period in 2025. Their purchases represented 18.3% of all home sales, down from 19.2% in H1 2025 and 20.3% in H1 2024. The decline was the sharpest year-on-year fall since the first half of 2020.
At the same time, the average price paid by foreign buyers rose by 9.4%, reaching €2,644 per square metre. That contrast—fewer transactions but a higher average price—is one of the most striking features of the market.
It also needs careful interpretation. The figures show that the average price across completed purchases increased. They do not tell us whether comparable homes became more expensive, buyers shifted towards higher-priced homes or locations, or lower-priced transactions declined more sharply. Those are possible explanations, but the figures alone cannot distinguish between them.
“Foreign buyer” does not always mean “non-resident”
The figures separate foreign buyers by residency status. During H1 2026:
- Foreign residents in Spain made 39,387 purchases, down 9.7% year on year. They accounted for 63.2% of purchases by foreign buyers.
- Non-resident foreign buyers made 22,940 purchases, down 18.0%. They accounted for the remaining 36.8%.
Non-resident purchases fell more sharply, extending a downward trend that began after a peak in H1 2022. Their H1 2026 total was the lowest since H1 2021. Foreign residents, by contrast, were below their H1 2025 record but remained at a high level compared with the historical series.
This distinction matters when reading headlines about “foreign demand”. A foreign national who lives in Spain is included in the foreign-buyer total, but is not counted as a non-resident. A fall in non-resident purchases therefore does not mean that all foreign-buyer activity fell at the same rate.
Non-residents paid the highest average prices
Average prices differed substantially by buyer group:
| Buyer group | Average price in H1 2026 | Year-on-year change |
| Non-resident foreign buyers | €3,493/m² | +11.8% |
| Foreign residents in Spain | €2,102/m² | +9.8% |
| Spanish buyers | €1,971/m² | +8.7% |
Non-residents paid an average of €1,391/m² more than foreign residents. The gap widened from €1,210/m² in H1 2025.
These figures show that non-resident purchases were associated with a much higher average price per square metre than purchases by foreign residents or Spanish buyers. They do not, on their own, explain why. The available figures do not break these averages down by property type, condition, location within each region or individual buyer budget.
For prospective buyers, the figures are best read as a description of the homes bought by each group during the period—not as a price guide for a particular property or neighbourhood.
The regional picture is uneven
Foreign-buyer transactions declined in most of Spain’s autonomous communities. The two exceptions were Castilla-La Mancha, where they rose by 4.4%, and Extremadura, where they rose by 3.3%. The steepest falls were in Cantabria (−20.5%), the Canary Islands (−20.3%) and the Community of Madrid (−19.7%). In Andalusia, foreign-buyer purchases fell by 12.7%.
Prices paid by foreign buyers moved differently: they rose in 15 of the 17 regions. Andalusia recorded an 11.5% increase, bringing the average to €2,806/m². The only regional decreases were in La Rioja (−5.5%) and Navarra (−4.8%).
Andalusia therefore shares the national pattern of fewer foreign-buyer transactions alongside a higher average price paid. That is useful regional context, but it is not a direct measure of what happened in Marbella, Nueva Andalucía or any other individual municipality or neighbourhood.
Where non-resident buyers purchased
Non-resident purchases were concentrated in a handful of coastal and island regions:
- Community of Valencia: 9,250 purchases, or 40.3% of all non-resident foreign purchases in Spain.
- Andalusia: 5,800, or 25.3%.
- Canary Islands: 2,046, or 8.9%.
- Region of Murcia: 1,780, or 7.8%.
- Catalonia: 1,777, or 7.7%.
These percentages describe each region’s share of non-resident foreign purchases nationally. They are not the share of all home sales in that region.
Foreign residents followed a broader pattern. Catalonia led with 8,516 purchases, followed by the Community of Valencia with 8,196, Andalusia with 6,007 and the Community of Madrid with 3,912. Andalusia accounted for 15.3% of foreign-resident purchases across Spain.
Nationalities: different profiles among residents and non-residents
Across all foreign-buyer purchases, buyers from Morocco made the largest number of transactions in H1 2026, with 4,960, followed by the United Kingdom (4,541), Italy (4,109), Romania (3,974) and Germany (3,907). Together, these five nationalities accounted for 34.6% of foreign-buyer purchases.
The profile was different among non-residents. The largest nationality groups within non-resident purchases were buyers from the Netherlands (12.6%), Germany (11.8%), the United Kingdom (10.4%) and Poland (8.1%). Among foreign residents, Moroccan buyers made the most purchases, followed by Italian and Romanian buyers.
Purchases by Venezuelan buyers increased by 10.2%, while those by Colombian buyers rose by 7.4%. The largest declines by nationality were among buyers from Russia (−26.2%), China (−26.1%), the United States (−22.0%), Bulgaria (−21.6%), Belgium (−21.3%) and the United Kingdom (−21.0%).
These figures count completed transactions. They do not explain individual motivations or show how many potential buyers chose not to proceed.
What the figures can—and cannot—tell a buyer
The data provides a useful snapshot of completed home purchases during H1 2026. It shows that:
- foreign-buyer purchases declined nationally, with a sharper fall among non-residents;
- the average price paid by each buyer group increased;
- Andalusia recorded a fall in foreign-buyer purchases alongside a rise in the average price paid;
- regional and nationality patterns varied considerably.
It does not establish that the lowest-priced homes or buyers disappeared from the market. Nor does it show that prices for like-for-like homes rose by the reported average. A changing mix of property types, locations or transaction values may affect an average, but the data does not quantify those effects.
The figures are based on anonymised information from notarial deeds and cover free-market home purchases. Some charts are marked as preliminary. The data is not broken down to municipality or neighbourhood level, so regional figures should not be treated as local measurements.
For buyers considering Spain, the clearest takeaway is that the market is not moving in one uniform way: transaction volumes, buyer residency and average prices tell different parts of the story. Understanding a particular destination requires local transaction data and comparisons across matching time periods.
This article is based on Informe analítico compraventa de vivienda por parte de extranjeros 1S26, published by the Consejo General del Notariado. It covers free-market home purchases completed in Spain during the first half of 2026 and compares them with the same period in 2025.
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