Notes · Luxury real estate
In the second half of 2025, foreign non-residents bought 15.1% fewer homes in Spain. They are still the buyers who pay the most per square metre.
What ended with the golden visa, what the latest notarial data says about residents and non-residents, what cannot be concluded from it, and why a luxury agency needs two journeys on its website.
Picture this: January 2026, an agency in Estepona reviews the year. Fewer buyers have flown in from London or Amsterdam to view homes. More calls have come from foreigners who already live on the Costa del Sol and want to trade up. The website, meanwhile, looks the way it did in 2023. On the home page, a section titled “Golden Visa” explains how to obtain residency by buying a property. Nobody has taken it down.
That section is not just out of date. It describes a route that no longer exists. And the agency keeps talking to the buyer who comes least often, with an argument it can no longer offer.
What ended on 3 April 2025.
Organic Law 1/2025 on the efficiency of the public justice service emptied articles 63 to 67 of Law 14/2013 on support for entrepreneurs, which governed visas and residence permits for investors, including those obtained by buying property. It came into force on 3 April 2025. Applications filed before that date are decided under the previous rules, and visas and permits already granted remain valid for the period for which they were issued.
What the notaries report.
According to the Spanish notaries’ statistics centre, foreigners bought 66,629 homes on the open market in the second half of 2025, 4.4% fewer than a year earlier and 18.4% of all purchases. Within that group, residents accounted for 62.8% of purchases, up 3.3%. Non-residents accounted for the remaining 37.2%, down 15.1%.
The other half of the story is the price. Buyers not resident in Spain paid on average €3,242 per square metre, against €1,963 for foreign residents and €1,839 for Spanish buyers. Among non-residents, the nationalities with the largest share were the Netherlands, with 12.6% of their purchases, Germany with 11.9%, the United Kingdom with 11.5% and Belgium with 8.1%. In Andalusia, among non-residents, the United Kingdom accounted for 16% and the Netherlands for 13.7%.
What I do not know.
I do not know how much of that fall is due to the end of the golden visa. The notaries themselves place the decline in non-resident purchases within a trend that goes back to a peak in the first half of 2022, after the post-pandemic boom. Nor do they separate out the luxury segment: an average price per square metre for all of Spain says little about a villa in La Zagaleta. And I have no later figures for Marbella specifically.
The blind spot: the language of the buyer from afar.
If your website speaks Spanish and English, perhaps German, it is missing something the notaries point out: the leading nationality among non-resident buyers across Spain was Dutch, and in Andalusia it made up 13.7% of those purchases, behind the United Kingdom. A website that does not speak the language of the people paying most per square metre asks the effort of exactly those who least need to make it, because they can buy on any other coast.
The buyers drifting away are the ones who pay the most.
Where I stand.
I think a luxury agency in Spain now needs two journeys on its website. One for people who already live here, who want speed, viewings and a close conversation. Another for people buying from abroad, who need to understand the process before boarding a plane: how remote viewings work, which documents are needed, who will accompany them and in which language. Automation helps a great deal with the second: replying at night, organising documents and preparing the viewing. A website that still sells the golden visa is not out of date. It is promising something that no longer exists.
What I would check.
- Old pages. Any mention of the golden visa or residency through purchase, in every language and in old blog posts too.
- Languages. Whether the website speaks Dutch, German and French as well as English, depending on who actually buys in your area.
- The two journeys. Whether residents and buyers from abroad each find what they need.
- Buying from a distance. Whether the website explains how to view, reserve and sign without living in Spain, with legal counsel as the reference.
- Your own data. What share of your 2025 and 2026 enquiries came from residents and what share from non-residents, and from which countries.
Where to start.
- Today
Search your website for “golden visa”
In every language, in listings and in the blog, and remove or correct what is no longer true.
- This month
Count your enquiries
Separate residents from non-residents, and note nationality and language.
- This quarter
Build the second journey
One page per language for buyers from abroad, reviewed by your legal counsel.
- Every six months
Read the notaries
Compare your enquiries with the report on purchases by foreigners for your region.
Read your website as a buyer from Zurich or Dubai who has never been to your office and may not come until the signing. In which language does it greet them? Does it explain what happens between the offer and the notary, and who accompanies them?
Then search your website for the words “golden visa”. If they are still there, ask yourself what a buyer reading them understands today, and what they think of an agency that has not noticed.
If you would like me to review which buyer your website speaks to today, and in which languages, start with the Strategic Diagnostic. How a non-resident can buy, with which taxes and formalities, is for your legal advisers to explain, not a designer.