British buyers no longer dominate the foreign market for property in Spain like they once did, and their share of the foreign market has been declining since 2015.

Approximately 1,998 Spanish home sales involved a British buyer in the second quarter of the year, according to the latest data from the Spanish land registrars’ association, down 15% compared to the same time last year, as illustrated by the chart above.

As a result of the decline in British buyers, and the growth of demand from other parts of the world, the British-buyer share of the foreign market fell to an all-time low of 8.8% as illustrated by the next chart.

Nevertheless, the British remain the biggest single group of foreign buyers of property in Spain by nationality, and purchases in Q2 were higher than the same period in 2013, 2014, and 2021 (and 2020, when the market was still largely closed by Covid). Of the eleven years from 2013 to 2023, Q2 this year was in seventh place in terms of sales, so below average but not a disaster (see final chart below). However, compared to Q2 2016, before the Brexit referendum, British demand is down by 30%.

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