DUTCH home seekers have overtaken Britons and Germans as Spain’s biggest foreign property buyers, according to new data, ending a lead both groups have broadly held for nearly three decades.

Home hunters from the Netherlands bought 6,289 properties across Spain last year, figures from Spain’s Notary Council show.

That puts them ahead of German buyers, who purchased 6,233 homes in 2025, and British buyers, who acquired 6,152.

The shift comes as foreign demand continues to reshape Spain’s housing market, with British purchases falling by 8.5% year-on-year as German transactions declined by 2.6%.

According to the same dataset, resident and non-resident Dutch buyers bought a combined 8,354 homes in 2025.

The figure marks a 12.2% annual increase – and one of the strongest growth rates among all foreign buyer groups.

Data also shows that Dutch home hunters are flocking to the Costa Blanca – particularly Alicante – alongside Malaga province, particularly in Marbella, Estepona and Mijas.

Foreign buying in Spain eased slightly in 2025, with transactions falling 0.8% year-on-year to just over 138,250, according to notaries.

The figure, however, still accounted for nearly 19% of all home sales.

It follows a post-pandemic surge that saw foreign demand peak in 2022 at 143,649 purchases, representing 20.6% of the total Spanish housing market.

Although volumes dipped in 2023 to around 131,400 transactions, foreign buyers actually increased their market share to 21%, despite fewer overall purchases.

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