The international buyer in Spain is changing

For decades, British, German and other Northern European buyers have accounted for a significant share of foreign demand for property in Spain. However, a new profile is gaining ground: the U.S. buyer.

The figures are beginning to reveal a trend that is difficult to ignore.

During the first half of 2025, property purchases by U.S. buyers increased by 14.3% year-on-year, according to Spain’s General Council of Notaries.

The trend continued throughout the year. In 2025, purchases by U.S. buyers increased by 3%, even as foreign purchases overall declined. Moreover, the number of transactions carried out by U.S. buyers has tripled over the past six years, according to data from Spain’s General Council of Notaries reported by Reuters.

For U.S. buyers, Spain appears to be evolving from primarily a holiday destination into something more: a residential, lifestyle and wealth-diversification alternative.

A high-net-worth international buyer

The growing presence of U.S. buyers is particularly significant not only because of the increase in transactions, but also because of the profile of these purchasers.

In 2025, U.S. buyers paid approximately €3,501 per square metre — 29% more than the average paid by foreign buyers and almost twice as much as Spanish buyers — according to notarial data cited by Reuters. The United States ranked alongside Sweden and Germany among the nationalities paying the highest prices for property in Spain.

Data from Spain’s Land Registrars point in the same direction. During the first quarter of 2025, North America was the foreign region with the highest average purchase price in Spain, at €4,583 per square metre.

This makes U.S. buyers a particularly interesting segment for Spain’s upper-middle and premium property markets.

What are U.S. buyers looking for in Spain?

There is no single explanation.

Buying a property is part of a much broader decision involving economic, personal and lifestyle considerations.

Spain offers a combination that is difficult to reduce to a single factor: its climate, gastronomy, historic heritage, walkable cities, excellent connections with the rest of Europe, coastline, cultural offering and extraordinary diversity of property markets within a single country.

A buyer may be looking for an urban apartment in Madrid or Barcelona, a contemporary villa on the Costa del Sol, a Mediterranean property in Alicante or the Balearic Islands, or a home by the sea in the Canary Islands.

There is also another factor that is difficult to measure statistically but is repeatedly mentioned by professionals working with this market: the perception of quality of life.

Industry professionals consulted by Reuters specifically point to quality of life, security and the opportunity to diversify assets outside the United States as some of the motivations identified among their U.S. clients.

From Northern Europe to North America

U.S. buyers still do not account for the same volume of transactions as the major traditional European markets.

British buyers, for example, remained the largest foreign nationality in 2025 according to data from Spain’s Land Registrars, accounting for 7.97% of purchases made by foreign buyers, followed by German and Dutch buyers.

However, focusing solely on current market share can obscure the direction of travel.

U.S. transactions have tripled over the past six years, while British purchases have fallen by 16% over the same period, according to notarial data reported by Reuters.

This does not mean that the United States is about to replace Spain’s traditional European markets. It means something different: the international buyer landscape in Spain is becoming increasingly diversified.

For the property industry, that diversification creates new opportunities.

The Costa del Sol: a key destination for international buyers

Certain regions of Spain are particularly exposed to international demand.

In 2025, approximately 32.8% of residential property transactions registered in the province of Málaga involved foreign buyers, one of the highest proportions in Spain.

When it comes specifically to the U.S. market, the Costa del Sol is becoming increasingly prominent.

According to statements by real estate company GILMAR reported by Reuters, U.S. buyers became the agency’s largest foreign client group on the Costa del Sol in 2025, overtaking British buyers. Meanwhile, luxury property specialist Lucas Fox ranked U.S. buyers as its second-largest international client group, behind the UK, highlighting their presence in premium transactions worth more than €3 million.

These are company-level figures rather than statistics for the Costa del Sol market as a whole, but they provide a clear indication of the type of demand emerging in certain parts of Spain.

Spain in an increasingly global property market

The broader market context also helps explain this evolution.

Spain recorded 705,357 residential property transactions in 2025, an increase of 10.7% compared with the previous year and the highest volume since 2007. Of these, approximately 97,500 were carried out by foreign buyers, according to Spain’s Land Registrars.

International demand is particularly strong in certain regions. Foreign buyers accounted for 29.86% of purchases in the Balearic Islands, 27.65% in the Valencian Community, 25.65% in the Canary Islands and 13.34% in Andalusia.

The figures vary depending on the methodology used by the Land Registrars and the Notaries — the latter recorded foreign purchases as 18.4% of total transactions during the second half of 2025 — but both sources point to the same fundamental conclusion: international demand has become a structural component of Spain’s property market.

An opportunity for Spain’s property industry

The arrival of new international buyer profiles also presents a challenge for estate agents, developers and property owners.

Having a good property is no longer enough. To compete for a buyer who may be searching for property from California, Florida, New York, London, Stockholm or Amsterdam, international visibility is becoming part of a property's commercial value.

International buyers often begin their search thousands of kilometres away, long before they physically visit a property. This makes professional property presentation, comprehensive information in English, high-quality visual content, search technology and the ability to reach the right market increasingly important.

For Spanish estate agencies, the question is therefore no longer simply how many people see a property.

The real question is: is it reaching the right buyers?

A market worth watching

The United States still represents a relatively small share of Spain’s enormous international property market. It is therefore important to avoid headlines that overstate the phenomenon.

But the indicators are significant: growing transaction volumes, high average purchase prices, an increasing presence in the premium segment and particularly visible growth in some of Spain’s leading property destinations.

Spain has been attracting international buyers for decades.

What is changing is where they come from, what they are looking for and how much they are willing to invest in finding it.

And the United States is becoming one of the markets that deserves particularly close attention.