Where do foreigners buy homes in Spain? Brits dominate south coast but Germans make larger footprint nationwide

BRITISH buyers continue to dominate property searches in southern Spain, but Germans now cast the biggest shadow across the market as a whole.

New figures from property portal Idealista reveal that Alicante (33.2%), the Balearics (31.5%), Malaga (27.1%) and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (25.8%) remain the clear hotspots for foreign demand in the second quarter of 2025. 

Girona (24%) and Las Palmas (20.2%) also rank highly, underlining how coastal and island provinces remain the prime draw for international buyers.

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Brits still lead in Almeria (22%), Murcia (19%), Granada (16%) and Malaga (14%). 

Yet in Alicante they have slipped to third place behind the Dutch (19%) and Germans (12%), while in the Balearics German demand dwarfs them with 42% of searches, compared to 11% from the UK.

Nationwide, Germans, Dutch, French and Italians are steadily gaining ground, with French buyers clustering in Girona, Tarragona and Castellon, while Italians show strong interest in the Canary Islands.

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In total, foreigners bought nearly 93,000 homes in Spain last year, representing 14.6% of all transactions, according to Registradores de la Propiedad. 

The top nationalities were British, German, Moroccan, French and Dutch.

Large urban markets see smaller foreign shares: Valencia (12.8%), Barcelona (9.5%) and Madrid (4.6%). In these cities, US buyers are increasingly visible, leading demand in Madrid and appearing prominently in Barcelona and Sevilla.

Analysts expect demand to stay high through 2025, though Britain’s long dominance is slowly giving way to a more diverse map of buyers.

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