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 affluent clients from the Gulf States. Ukrainians also remain among the most active foreign buyers of Spanish real estate.
These estimates are contained in data published in August by Hiscox on the Spanish ultra-luxury housing market. This primarily refers to properties valued at EUR3 million 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 Spanish real estate listings priced at over EUR3 million.
A particularly high proportion of foreign buyers is observed 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, they account for about 79%. In Madrid, the situation is the opposite: in the capital itself, foreign buyers account for only about 14% of transactions in this segment, while in the prestigious suburb of Alcohendas, the figure is 17%. Thus, Madrid’s luxury market remains focused to a much greater extent on 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 luxury real estate in Spain over the past five years.
The Hiscox study does not provide a detailed breakdown by nationality of buyers specifically for homes priced above EUR 3 million. 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. Dutch demand grew by approximately 12% year-over-year, while Polish demand rose by about 11%.
In the luxury market itself, the structure of demand is shifting even more noticeably. In June, Reuters noted a sharp influx of affluent buyers from Poland, the U.S., and the Gulf states to Madrid and the Costa del Sol. Meanwhile, British and German buyers remain traditionally strong groups of foreign property owners along the Spanish coast.
Polish demand has grown particularly rapidly in recent years. The share of Poles among all foreign buyers increased from approximately 1.6% in 2019 to 4% in 2025. In the Santa Clara luxury 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 the 64-story residential skyscraper currently under construction in Benidorm.
At the same time, American investment 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 having already surpassed Britons as the agency’s top foreign buyers on the Costa del Sol. Across Spain as a whole, U.S. buyers also stand out for the high value of the homes 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. This last figure is an estimate, as Spanish registrars did not publish the absolute number of Ukrainian transactions for the half-year separately.
For 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.
As early as 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 EUR1,832 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 home purchases by foreigners as of the end of 2025.
It is noteworthy that Spain’s cancellation of the Golden Visa program as of April 3, 2025, had virtually no impact on the situation in the high-end price 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 real estate worth several million euros chooses Spain primarily for its quality of life, climate, safety, infrastructure, and the opportunity to diversify their capital—rather than to obtain a residence permit.
Reuters also confirms this trend: geopolitical instability has become an additional driver of demand. For some Polish and Ukrainian families, a home on the Costa del Sol is viewed as a safe haven far from Europe’s eastern border; American buyers are seeking an alternative place to live and invest their capital; and clients from the Gulf states are beginning to view Spain as a potential alternative to Dubai.
As a result, Spain’s luxury real estate market is becoming increasingly international.
