Official notary statistics released on 9 April show that foreign nationals purchased 66,629 free-market homes in Spain in the second half of 2025—down 4.4 % year-on-year and the sharpest drop since the pandemic recovery. The fall is concentrated among non-resident buyers (-15.1 %), the segment that previously drove high-value transactions under the golden-visa programme, which the Spanish government stopped accepting in the summer of 2025. Yet the data reveal a paradox: while volumes are shrinking, average prices paid by non-residents jumped 5.8 % to €3,242 per m², compared with €1,839 for Spanish citizens.
![End of Spain’s golden-visa scheme dents foreign home buying by 4.4 % but pushes prices up]()
VisaHQ can streamline this new complexity for both corporations and individual buyers. Through its Spain-focused portal (https://www.visahq.com/spain/), the platform walks applicants through digital-nomad, entrepreneur and intra-company transfer visas, providing document checklists, real-time status tracking and expert support—tools that are proving critical now that property alone no longer unlocks residency.
Lawyers say wealthy investors are still keen on Spanish real estate but are now structuring purchases through residency-by-entrepreneurship or digital-nomad visas, both of which carry lower investment thresholds but stricter activity tests. Regionally, Madrid recorded the steepest fall in foreign demand (-20.3 %), followed by the Canary and Balearic Islands (around ‑10 %). Valencia and Andalucía, traditional hotspots for British retirees and German ‘second-homers’, retained the lion’s share of non-resident deals, together accounting for nearly two-thirds of transactions. For relocation and assignment managers the shift matters. Without the automatic residency rights once attached to a €500,000 property purchase, C-level transferees now need a visa pathway that links their stay to an economic activity—be that a highly-skilled work permit, the Startup Act’s digital-nomad route or an intra-company transfer permit. Employers should revisit mobility policies that previously budgeted for real-estate investments as part of compensation packages. Property advisers also warn that limited supply in prime coastal markets will keep prices elevated despite lower transaction numbers, meaning assignee housing allowances may have to rise even as the legislative landscape becomes more restrictive for passive investors.
VisaHQ can streamline this new complexity for both corporations and individual buyers. Through its Spain-focused portal (https://www.visahq.com/spain/), the platform walks applicants through digital-nomad, entrepreneur and intra-company transfer visas, providing document checklists, real-time status tracking and expert support—tools that are proving critical now that property alone no longer unlocks residency.
Lawyers say wealthy investors are still keen on Spanish real estate but are now structuring purchases through residency-by-entrepreneurship or digital-nomad visas, both of which carry lower investment thresholds but stricter activity tests. Regionally, Madrid recorded the steepest fall in foreign demand (-20.3 %), followed by the Canary and Balearic Islands (around ‑10 %). Valencia and Andalucía, traditional hotspots for British retirees and German ‘second-homers’, retained the lion’s share of non-resident deals, together accounting for nearly two-thirds of transactions. For relocation and assignment managers the shift matters. Without the automatic residency rights once attached to a €500,000 property purchase, C-level transferees now need a visa pathway that links their stay to an economic activity—be that a highly-skilled work permit, the Startup Act’s digital-nomad route or an intra-company transfer permit. Employers should revisit mobility policies that previously budgeted for real-estate investments as part of compensation packages. Property advisers also warn that limited supply in prime coastal markets will keep prices elevated despite lower transaction numbers, meaning assignee housing allowances may have to rise even as the legislative landscape becomes more restrictive for passive investors.
