Mark Stücklin
Spain’s notaries have launched a new public information portal offering access to housing market data based on actual transactions rather than advertised prices. It’s a useful step towards greater transparency, even if it doesn’t go as far as revealing the prices of individual properties sold.
The Portal Estadístico del Notariado, now live at penotariado.com, draws on anonymised data from the notaries’ vast central database of property transactions to show what’s really happening in the market.
Users can explore prices per square metre, average transaction values, property sizes, and the number of sales by region, province, municipality, or even postcode. You can also filter by property type, buyer age, nationality, and residency status, with the top five foreign nationalities shown for each area, though you do have to register if you want access to that level of detail.
To take one example, Marbella recorded 4,322 sales between September 2024 and August 2025, 92% of them resales and 82% apartments. Foreigners made up 63% of buyers, and 13% of those were British, which works out at around 365 British buyers in a year, most of them non-residents buying second homes.
Why it matters
The new portal adds some much-needed transparency to Spain’s property market, where reliable information on actual sales has long been difficult to obtain. For professionals, buyers, and sellers alike, it’s a welcome new reference point for understanding market conditions and trends.
The interface is clear and the data are updated monthly, covering the past twelve months of market activity. Users can also register (for free) to access more detailed information, save favourite areas, and use simple tools such as a mortgage calculator and basic guides to buying and selling — though these aren’t particularly original.
What’s missing
Despite the progress, the portal doesn’t include the one thing most people want: comparable sales for individual properties. In markets like the UK or the US, you can see which homes sold, when, and for how much. That kind of data makes it possible to value property realistically and transparently — but Spain still keeps that level of detail locked away.
Even so, this is a solid initiative from the notaries and a small but positive step towards a more transparent housing market. It won’t revolutionise how we understand property prices in Spain, but it does provide new and useful insight into the structure and dynamics of the market.
For anyone interested in Spain’s housing market, it’s worth keeping an eye on.
