Foreign buyers took 18.4% of Spanish home sales in H2 2025, down from 19.5% in H2 2024 and 20.9% in 2023, with volume falling 4.4% (Consejo General del Notariado, semi-annual report published 9 April 2026). In Marbella, foreign buyers were 60.9% of purchases in the twelve months to May 2026. Both figures are correct.
They are also not in conflict. The national share is an average dominated by volume — mid-market coastal and urban flats, where a foreign buyer is subject to the same financing arithmetic as a Spanish one. Marbella is not that market. What follows is what each dataset says, and where the sources disagree.
The national picture: three consecutive years of decline
The direction of travel is unambiguous. The foreign share of Spanish home purchases has fallen in each of the last three measured periods — not a single weak half-year that can be dismissed as noise.
Foreign purchases of homes in Spain, volume and share of all home sales. Source: Consejo General del Notariado, semi-annual foreign-buyer report published 9 April 2026, data for H2 2025.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Purchases by foreigners, H2 2025 | 66,629 |
| Change in volume year-on-year (%) | −4.4 |
| Foreign share of all home sales, H2 2025 (%) | 18.4 |
| Foreign share of all home sales, H2 2024 (%) | 19.5 |
| Foreign share of all home sales, 2023 (%) | 20.9 |
Two pressures explain most of it. The first is price: the average Spanish home reached 2,049 €/m² in May 2026, up 8.8% year-on-year, with flats at 2,455 €/m², up 14.0% (Consejo General del Notariado, May 2026 data released 30 July 2026). Flats are the format most foreign buyers in the volume markets purchase, and the format that has repriced hardest.
The second is credit. Nationally, 54.8% of purchases used a mortgage at an average loan-to-price of 72.5%, with the average purchase mortgage at €181,976 and purchase mortgages down 4.0% year-on-year (same release). A buyer borrowing roughly three-quarters of the price is exposed to both the price rise and the cost of the debt. A buyer who does not borrow is exposed only to the price.
That distinction is the whole article.
Málaga province against Spain and Andalucía
The provincial data comes from a different institution — the Colegio de Registradores, which records inscriptions at the property registry rather than deeds at signature. Its national foreign-buyer share is materially lower than the notaries’, which I deal with below. Read within its own dataset it is internally consistent, and the ranking it produces is the point.
Foreign-buyer share of home purchases, Málaga province against national and regional benchmarks. Source: Colegio de Registradores, Estadística Registral Inmobiliaria (ERI), Q4 2025.
| Area | Foreign-buyer share of purchases (%) | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Málaga province | 31.1 | 3rd in Spain |
| Spain | 13.5 | National benchmark |
| Andalucía | 12.5 | Regional benchmark |
The Andalucía figure being lower than Málaga’s is not an error. Málaga is one of eight provinces in Andalucía, and the other seven — Seville, Córdoba, Jaén, Granada, Almería, Cádiz and Huelva — are in aggregate domestic markets, large enough to pull the regional average below the national one. Málaga at 31.1% is an outlier inside its own region, running at roughly two and a half times the Andalusian rate. Anyone reasoning from the Andalucía figure to a conclusion about the Costa del Sol will get it backwards. It is the same structural point I make about the coast in the Costa del Sol property investment outlook for 2026: averages across heterogeneous markets describe nowhere in particular.
Who is buying: two nationality lists that do not agree
There are two published nationality breakdowns for foreign purchases in Spain, and they do not match. Most commentary picks whichever supports its argument. I would rather show both.
Nationality mix of foreign home purchases in Spain, as published by the two principal statistical sources. Notariado column: semi-annual report published 9 April 2026, data for H2 2025. Registradores column: ERI Q4 2025.
| Nationality | Notariado, share of foreign purchases, H2 2025 (%) | Registradores, share of foreign purchases, Q4 2025 (%) |
|---|---|---|
| British | 7.8 | 7.9 |
| Moroccan | 7.7 | 5.8 |
| Italian | 6.6 | 5.3 |
| German | 6.5 | 6.7 |
| Dutch | Not published in this release | 6.8 |
| Romanian | Not published in this release | 5.5 |
| French | Not published in this release | 4.9 |
| Belgian | Not published in this release | 4.4 |
Three things differ between the columns, and all three matter. Different institutions: notaries record the transaction when the deed is signed, registrars when it is inscribed at the property registry, and the two events are separated by a varying interval. Different periods: H2 2025 is six months, July to December; Q4 2025 is three months, October to December. And different denominators — each share is expressed against that source’s own count of foreign purchases, and those counts are not the same, which is why the headline national foreign share is 18.4% in one series and 13.5% in the other.
What I will not do is reconcile them for you. From the published tables I cannot decompose the gap between 18.4% and 13.5% into timing, definitional and coverage effects, and I am not going to estimate it. The honest reading is directional: British buyers lead both series at close to 8%, German buyers sit in the mid-6s in both, and no nationality is close to dominant in Spain as a whole.
Note also what is absent. The Scandinavian nationalities appear in neither top group, because at national scale they are small. At Marbella scale they are not — which is the problem with using national data to describe a municipality.
What Marbella’s 60.9% actually means
The Marbella figure comes from the notaries’ own municipality-level data, twelve months to May 2026. Since the Consejo General del Notariado’s statistics centre moved to monthly updates at municipality level, it can be refreshed from a single authoritative source rather than assembled from agency estimates.
Marbella and Málaga province, transaction characteristics. Source: Portal Estadístico del Notariado, twelve months to May 2026 — except the provincial foreign-buyer share, which is Colegio de Registradores ERI Q4 2025, a different source and period from the rest of that column.
| Metric | Marbella | Málaga province |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign-buyer share of purchases (%) | 60.9 | 31.1 (Registradores, Q4 2025) |
| Average price (€/m²) | 4,665 | 3,061 |
| Median price (€/m²) | 3,636 | Not published |
| Average transaction value (€) | 788,970 | 368,679 |
| Average surface area (m²) | 169 | 120 |
| Recorded sales (number) | 4,037 | 33,997 |
| Price change year-on-year (%) | +7.68 | Not published |
The average Marbella transaction is €788,970 across 169 m². That is more than twice the provincial average of €368,679, on a property roughly 40% larger. Set against the national credit figures, the arithmetic does the work: the average Spanish purchase mortgage of €181,976 is 23% of the average Marbella transaction.
I want to be careful about the inference. No published dataset tells us what proportion of Marbella purchases complete without a mortgage — that figure does not exist in the notarial or registral series at municipality level, and anyone quoting one to you has estimated it. What the numbers do establish is that the average Marbella transaction sits far outside the range national mortgage statistics describe. A market where the typical purchase is four times the average national mortgage is not one whose volume is set by the cost of borrowing — which is why Marbella’s foreign share held at 60.9% while the national share fell for a third consecutive year.
The corollary is a warning, not a reassurance. A market insulated from rate movements is also insulated from rate relief: if financing costs ease, the volume markets should respond first and Marbella least.
The gradient within the municipality matters as much as the headline, as set out in the Marbella area guide. Why non-residents pay a premium per square metre at all is examined in why non-resident buyers pay more per square metre in Spain.
The Scandinavian buyer specifically
Danish, Swedish and Finnish buyers are EU citizens, and Norwegian and Icelandic buyers are EEA. None of them face the residency questions or the proposed tax measures that occupy non-EU buyers. The proposal announced in January 2025 to apply a tax of up to 100% on residential purchases would apply to non-EU, non-resident buyers only; as of 1 August 2026 it remains a proposición de ley, a bill before parliament, and is not law. The Golden Visa abolished in April 2025 was a residency mechanism for non-EU investors; free movement already gave EU and EEA citizens the right to buy and live in Spain. The detail is in the article on Spain’s proposed 100% property tax on foreign buyers; the practical side of relocating is covered in the guide to moving to Marbella with a family.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice; the position should be confirmed with a Spanish lawyer or asesor fiscal for the specific property and the specific buyer.
Common questions
Are foreign buyers leaving the Spanish property market?
They are buying less of it. Foreign purchases fell 4.4% in volume in H2 2025 and the foreign share of all sales dropped to 18.4%, from 19.5% in H2 2024 and 20.9% in 2023 (Consejo General del Notariado, published 9 April 2026). That is three consecutive periods of decline, driven mainly by the volume markets rather than the prime segment.
Why is Marbella’s foreign-buyer share so much higher than Spain’s?
Because Marbella sells a different product to a different buyer. Foreign buyers were 60.9% of Marbella purchases in the twelve months to May 2026, against a national 18.4% for H2 2025. The average Marbella transaction was €788,970 across 169 m², against €368,679 provincially. That price level sits outside what national mortgage statistics describe, so national financing pressure does not read across.
Why do the notaries and the registrars report different foreign-buyer numbers?
Different institution, period and denominator. Notaries record the deed at signature; registrars record inscription at the property registry, which happens later. The Notariado figure covers H2 2025, six months; the Registradores ERI covers Q4 2025, three months. Each share is calculated against its own source’s transaction count, which is why the national foreign share is 18.4% in one series and 13.5% in the other.
Is Málaga province at 31.1% consistent with Andalucía at 12.5%?
Yes, and the gap is the useful part. Málaga is one of eight Andalusian provinces; the other seven are predominantly domestic markets and pull the regional average below the national 13.5% (Colegio de Registradores, ERI Q4 2025). Málaga ranks third in Spain. Using the Andalucía figure to describe the Costa del Sol inverts the picture.
Does the proposed 100% tax affect Danish, Swedish or Norwegian buyers?
No. The proposal announced in January 2025 targets non-EU, non-resident buyers. Danish, Swedish and Finnish buyers are EU citizens; Norwegian and Icelandic buyers are EEA. As of 1 August 2026 the measure remains a bill in parliament and is not law, and published legal analysis argues it would conflict with the Spanish Constitution and EU law.
What this changes for a buyer
Very little, if you were buying in Marbella anyway — which is itself the finding. The national retreat is real and should be taken seriously by anyone buying a mid-market coastal flat as an investment, because the marginal foreign buyer in that segment is demonstrably withdrawing. Where the average transaction is €788,970 there is no equivalent signal, and the honest position is that there is no evidence of a retreat rather than that one has been ruled out. Twelve months of municipality data cannot prove a negative. If you want these figures read against a specific property or budget rather than against the national average, get in touch.
Sources
- Consejo General del Notariado — semi-annual report on foreign purchases of housing, published 9 April 2026, data for H2 2025. Foreign share, volume change, comparative shares and nationality mix. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
- Consejo General del Notariado — monthly housing statistics, May 2026 data released 30 July 2026. National price per m², mortgage share, average purchase mortgage, loan-to-price. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
- Portal Estadístico del Notariado — municipality data for Marbella and Málaga province, twelve months to May 2026. Foreign-buyer share, price per m², transaction value, surface area, recorded sales. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
- Colegio de Registradores, Estadística Registral Inmobiliaria (ERI) Q4 2025 — foreign-buyer share for Málaga province, Spain and Andalucía, and nationality mix. Retrieved 1 August 2026.