According to Open4business, foreign buyers account for about 60% of the demand for ultra-luxury housing in Spain, and prices in this segment have risen by approximately 30% over the past five years. Alongside traditional British and German buyers, the most notable activity is currently being driven by citizens of the Netherlands, Poland, and the United States, as well as wealthy clients from the Persian Gulf countries. Ukrainians also remain among the most active foreign buyers of Spanish real estate.

These estimates are contained in data published in August by Hiscox regarding the Spanish ultra-luxury housing market. This primarily refers to properties valued at 3 million euros or more.

Most of the demand is concentrated in just a few regions. The Balearic Islands, the province of Málaga, Madrid, and Barcelona account for 83% of the supply of Spanish real estate valued at over 3 million euros.

The share of foreign buyers is particularly high in resort markets. In Benahavís, in the province of Málaga, foreign buyers account for about 84% of luxury real estate transactions, while in Andratx, on Mallorca, the figure is about 79%. In Madrid, the situation is the opposite: in the capital itself, foreigners account for only about 14% of transactions in this segment, and in the prestigious suburb of Alcobendas, 17%. Thus, Madrid’s luxury market remains largely oriented toward affluent Spanish buyers.

At the same time, non-resident foreigners pay some of the highest prices per square meter, as they focus on properties in the most prestigious neighborhoods. According to Hiscox’s assessment, international capital has been one of the factors driving the approximately 30% increase in prices for Spain’s luxury real estate over the past five years.

The Hiscox study does not provide a detailed ranking of buyers of homes costing more than 3 million euros by nationality. However, the latest data from Spanish property registries reveal which foreign groups are currently the most active in the country’s market as a whole.

In the second quarter of 2026, foreigners purchased more than 26,800 residential properties in Spain, accounting for a record 15.98% of all registered transactions.

British citizens took first place with a 6.99% share of foreign purchases, virtually tying with Dutch citizens at 6.94%. They were followed by Germany (6.11%), Morocco (6.09%), Romania (5.70%), Italy (5.13%), France (4.97%), and Poland (4.33%).

In the first half of the year, British buyers purchased approximately 3,570 properties, while buyers from the Netherlands purchased about 3,490. Demand from Dutch buyers rose by approximately 12% year-over-year, while demand from Polish buyers increased by about 11%.

In the luxury real estate market itself, the structure of demand is shifting even more noticeably. In June, Reuters noted a sharp influx of wealthy buyers from Poland, the U.S., and the Gulf states to Madrid and the Costa del Sol. At the same time, British and German buyers remain traditionally strong groups of foreign property owners on the Spanish coast.

Polish demand has grown particularly rapidly in recent years. The share of Polish buyers among all foreign buyers increased from approximately 1.6% in 2019 to 4% in 2025. At the luxury Santa Clara complex in Marbella, which was completed last year, about 70% of the 102 homes were sold to Polish clients. Polish buyers also make up the majority of clients for a 64-story residential skyscraper currently under construction in Benidorm.

At the same time, American capital is growing rapidly. According to the real estate agency Gilmar, the share of U.S. clients in its transactions rose from 0.5% in 2024 to 6.2% in 2025, with Americans already surpassing the British among foreign buyers on the Costa del Sol. Across Spain as a whole, buyers from the U.S. also stand out for the high value of the properties they purchase.

Ukrainians are also among the most prominent foreign real estate buyers in Spain, although their purchases are not exclusively concentrated in the luxury segment.

In the first quarter of 2026, Ukrainian citizens accounted for 3.08% of all foreign home purchases, ranking tenth among nationalities. This corresponds to approximately 760–765 transactions over three months. In the second quarter, the share of Ukrainians was about 2.94%, placing them 11th among foreign buyers. In the first half of the year, Ukrainians purchased approximately 1,500 residential properties. The latter figure is an estimate, as Spanish registrars did not publish the exact number of Ukrainian transactions for the first half of the year separately.

By comparison, in the second quarter, Ukrainian buyers ranked just behind China, which accounted for 3.02%. At the same time, Ukraine remained ahead of a number of traditional markets for foreign buyers.

Back in the first half of 2025, Ukrainians set a record for themselves by purchasing 2,165 properties. At that time, the number of transactions by Ukrainian citizens increased by 4.5% year-over-year. The average price of housing purchased by Ukrainians was approximately 1,832 euros per square meter, which is significantly lower than the levels paid by American, German, or Scandinavian buyers and indicates that a significant portion of Ukrainian demand is concentrated not in the ultra-luxury segment, but in the standard and mid-range segments.

From a regional perspective, Ukrainians are particularly prominent in the Valencian Community, where they accounted for 5.92% of all residential property purchases by foreigners in 2025.

It is noteworthy that Spain’s abolition of the Golden Visa program on April 3, 2025, had virtually no impact on the high-end market segment.

According to Hiscox’s estimates, transactions related to obtaining a residence permit through investment accounted for only about 0.5% of the total number of deals. A typical buyer of a property worth several million euros chooses Spain primarily for its quality of life, climate, safety, infrastructure, and the opportunity to diversify capital—rather than to obtain a residence permit.

Reuters also confirms this trend: geopolitical instability has become an additional factor driving demand. For some Polish and Ukrainian families, a home on the Costa del Sol is seen as a fallback base far from Europe’s eastern border; American buyers are seeking an alternative place to live and invest their capital; and clients from the Persian Gulf countries are beginning to view Spain as a possible alternative to Dubai.

As a result, Spain’s luxury real estate market is becoming increasingly international.

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Last modified: August 19, 2026