Moroccans Surge in Spanish Property Market, Outpacing British Buyers

In Spain, the interest of foreigners in real estate continues to grow. According to the General Council of Spanish Notaries, the overall volume of foreign acquisitions reached 71,155 transactions between January and June 2025, recording a 2% increase in one year, the EFE agency reports. With 5,654 purchases recorded in the first half of the year, or 7.9% of the total transactions carried out by non-Spaniards, Moroccan nationals are the second largest foreign buyers of free housing in Spain. They are ahead of the United Kingdom, which retains the top spot with 5,731 acquisitions (8.1% of the total). Germany is in third place with 4,756 acquisitions, or 6.7% of the total. The rest of the non-EU buyers totaled 8,545 transactions, or 12% of the foreign market in the first half of 2025.

"Transactions carried out by foreign persons accounted for 19.3% of total real estate sales in the first half," a slight decline compared to the shares of 20.3% in 2024 and 21.3% in 2023, the Spanish notaries say. Other data: "Resident foreigners accounted for 60.9% of these purchases, a rate 6.4% higher than that observed a year earlier, while non-residents accounted for 39.1%, a decrease of 4.1%," the report states. At the origin of this slight decline, the abolition on April 3, 2025 of the "golden visa" schemes, which allowed to obtain a residence permit in exchange for a real estate investment of at least 500,000 euros, explain the Spanish notaries. Many Moroccans had also taken advantage of this benefit.

The average price paid by foreign buyers was 2,417 euros per square meter, up 7.6% year-on-year. According to the study, non-residents continue to spend higher amounts - 3,126 euros/m² - compared to 1,912 euros/m² for resident foreigners and 1,809 euros/m² for nationals. The most expensive buyers remain the Americans with an average price of 3,465 euros/m². They are closely followed by the Swiss (3,457 euros/m²), the Swedes (3,421 euros/m²), the Norwegians (3,292 euros/m²) and the Germans (3,270 euros/m²). Conversely, the lowest values were recorded among buyers from Morocco (747 euros/m²), Romania (1,325 euros/m²) and Ecuador (1,328 euros/m²).