Foreign buyers take a record 16% of Spanish home sales as total sales fall again
Serguey Asael Shinder1 min readForeign buyers accounted for 16.05% of Spanish home purchases in the third quarter of 2026, the highest share since records began, according to data from the College of Registrars reported by Euronews on 6 November. That was more than 26,300 transactions.
More than half of those foreign purchases, 54.7%, were made by EU citizens and a further 17.8% by buyers from the rest of Europe. British buyers led with 7.5% of foreign purchases, followed by Moroccans with 6.4% and Dutch buyers with 5.8%. The share was highest in the Balearic Islands, where 37.2% of sales went to foreigners, and in the Valencian Community at 30.4%.
Prices kept climbing. The registrars' repeat-sales index rose 15.8% year on year and 5.2% on the quarter, to a record. The average price reached 2,512 euros per square metre, with new homes at 2,701 euros, although the average-price measure shows slower growth, 1% on the quarter and 9.3% on the year. Madrid had the highest regional average at 4,565 euros per square metre, and San Sebastián the highest among provincial capitals at 6,662 euros.
Activity moved the other way. Sales fell 5.9% from a year earlier and 2.3% from the previous quarter, the third consecutive quarterly decline, to 164,148, the lowest in nine quarters. Home mortgages registered fell 3.9% on the quarter to 124,145, although the twelve-month total of 519,388 was still 6% higher than a year earlier.
What it means
Record prices with falling volumes usually point to buyers being priced out at the margin. The rising foreign share suggests international demand is cushioning a domestic market that is starting to cool.