Overseas Buyers 2024 - How Much?

I noted at the end of a previous blog analysing the 2024 property market statistics that the Nationality League table looks very different if what the nationalities spend is taken into account. And it looks even more different if the nationality split is further divided into resident or non-resident buyers.

Buyers from overseas have always spent more than domestic buyers. These 2024 figures show the average spend per square metre for domestic buyers was €1,686 while the average for foreign buyers was €2,306, 36% more. And the difference is even more marked if overseas buyers are separated into residents and non-residents; the average spend of a non-resident foreign buyer was €2,966, 76% higher than the domestic average. In the case of British buyers, who top the nationality by numbers league but who are far from the biggest spenders among overseas buyers, they spent 39% more pm2 than domestic buyers if taken as one group. However, if the British buyer is a resident then that difference falls to 14.8% while a non-resident British purchaser spent €2,605 pm2 on average, 54% above the national average for domestic buyers. I checked every nationality listed by the Notaries and in all cases the non-resident buyers, the second home buyers, spent more than their compatriots who bought as residents and, in several cases, a lot more.

Taking the nationality spending league table overall, buyers from the U.S. took the top spot for the first time, averaging 3,318 pm2, knocking the Swedes into 2nd place by just a few euros, €3,312 pm2. The Germans were 3rd, averaging €3,169 pm2. And what of the 10,512 Moroccans, in 2nd place in the nationality league based on buyer numbers? Turns out that they are the lowest spenders of all, averaging just €745 pm2, less than half the domestic national average. Several other nationalities also spent considerably less than the domestic average of 1,686 pm2; Romanians, (€1,181) Bulgarians (1,298), Ecuadorians (€1,208) Colombians (€1,428) and Venezuelans (€1,426).

But it all changes if the nationalities are split into resident and non-resident groups. Then the U.S. disappear from the top spot, replaced by Venezuelans non-resident buyers who averaged €6,175 pm2, followed by Ecuadorians on €4,302 pm2. But the numbers are tiny, just 48 non-resident Venezuelans and 31 non-resident Ecuadorians bought property in Spain in 2024, only 0.14% of the entire non-resident sector of the overseas property market. Non-resident buyers from the U.S. showed up in 3rd place averaging €3,749 pm2 some 36% more than their resident compatriots. And non-resident Moroccans? They spent an average €2,790 pm2, more than three times that of a resident Moroccan and outspending by 7% non-resident British buyers. But again the numbers were tiny, 207 non resident Moroccan buyers against 7,161 non-resident Brits.

So, digging a bit deeper into the spending averages for domestic versus overseas property markets uncovers big differences by nationality and whether the buyer was a resident buyer, now the majority of the overseas sector, or non-resident second home owners. I also think it makes the proposal to ban non-EU, non-resident property buyers in Spain, made by Pedro Sánchez back in January 2025, even sillier than I thought at the time. I think it safe to assume that if any foreigners are squeezing Spaniards out of the property market they are more likely to be the low-spending groups, almost certainly economic migrants and buying in town and city centres across the country, and as residents they would be excluded from the proposed ban. The sector of the property market the ban would affect, the high spending non-resident foreigner, predominantly buy on the Mediterranean mainland coasts or in Balearic and Canary Islands. I cover these regional hotspots in another blog.

^{©Barbara Wood}