Where do foreigners buy property in Spain?

Someone recently asked for a chart showing where foreigners buy property in Spain. Though I have produced lots of charts looking at foreign demand, it turns out I may have overlooked one showing total annual foreign demand per region, so here it is for the last full year for which we have data – 2019.

The data comes from the Association of Spanish Notaries, which also publishes maps showing foreign demand per region, broken down between foreigners resident in Spain, and non-residents buying second homes.

In this case the data relates to the first half of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was already raging, and which might have distorted the market. That said, the picture is very similar to the second half of 2019, so I can’t see any obvious distortion.

The maps show the market share by nationality as a percentage of overall foreign demand in each region, with flags for the countries that have the two highest shares. 

The first (left) map shows non-resident demand, which is mainly for second homes and Golden Visa investments. On the Mediterranean coast and islands it’s dominated by Northern Europeans led by the British.

The second map shows the demand of foreigners who live in Spain, mainly economic migrants from Morocco and Romania. But the British still play a leading role in their favourite regions of Andalusia, Murcia, and the Valencian Community.