Spanish home sales in H1 hit 18-year high – but foreign demand falters

Foreign non-resident (FNR) buyers seem to be turning off Spain, with their purchases down sharply even as overall home sales hit an 18-year high. Is political rhetoric to blame?

The Spanish property market has just delivered its strongest first half sales figures in nearly two decades, according to the Housing Ministry. A total of 379,777 homes changed hands in H1 2025, the highest level since the bubble days of 2007.

Local demand is doing the heavy lifting

Behind the headlines, the real story is that Spanish buyers are driving the boom. Local demand rose by 10% in H1, while foreign demand managed only a 2% increase. Look at the second quarter alone, and foreign sales were actually down 6% year-on-year.

The biggest drag came from non-resident foreigners – the holiday-home crowd – who were down 4% in H1 and a steep 14% in Q2. By contrast, resident foreigners (expats who live and work in Spain) broadly held their ground.

Foreign market share slipping

The foreign share of the market (FMS) fell to 17.3% in H1, from over 18% last year. That might not sound like much, but it’s a sign that Spain’s long run of foreign-buyer expansion could be stalling.

Is policy rhetoric to blame?

Could this slump be linked to the political noise coming out of Madrid? Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has publicly flirted with the idea of hammering non-resident foreign buyers with punitive new taxes, or even banning them altogether. His message has been that rich foreigners are “speculators” inflating housing costs for locals. You can see how important this segment is to the market in the non-resident buyers from outside the EU report.

Perhaps that message has cut through. Even if nothing has yet been legislated, the mere threat might be enough to make some would-be buyers from outside the EU think twice before wiring over the deposit on a holiday home in Spain. The proposal has certainly been given a lot of international media coverage.

What happens next?

For now, the market is still strong thanks to Spaniards piling in, and overall sales are at near-record highs. But with foreign demand softening – especially in the discretionary, holiday-home segment – policymakers may discover that making foreign buyers feel unwelcome has real-world consequences.