The number of Spanish homes purchased by foreigners declined in the first half of the year, but only compared to last year’s boom, confirm official figures from the Spanish government.

33,718 Spanish home sales in the second quarter of the year involved a foreign buyer, down 9pc compared to last year, and following a 4pc decline in Q1, according to the latest figures just published by the MITMA government department responsible for housing policy, and illustrated in the chart above.

Foreign demand performed better than local Spanish demand, which declined 16pc in Q2 and 11pc in Q1, so foreign buyers are gaining market share from Spanish buyers despite an absolute decline in numbers. Foreign buyers were 18.8% of the market in 2022, according to MITMA data.

By residency segment, foreign non-residents (FNR) were down 13pc in Q2, and expat buyers down 5pc, so the fall in foreign demand was more pronounced amongst foreigners buying holiday-homes and investments in Spain.

If you compare foreign demand in the second quarter to the same period in previous years (next chart) you can see that Q2 of this year was the second best on record, only behind 2022 when the market was enjoying a post-pandemic boom, and significantly higher than all years preceding the pandemic.  It was a similar story in Q1, so the data shows that foreign buyers are still coming to Spain in near record-numbers this year.

By region foreign buyers declined by 29pc in the Balearics, 19pc in the Canaries, 18pc in Andalusia, 8pc in Madrid, 5pc in Catalonia, 2pc in the Valencian region, and increased by 13pc in Murcia as illustrated in the final chart below.

Explore the data in the Data Hub.