Opinion piece by Alfred van Krimpen, President of GIPE — European Professional Real Estate Managers. The views expressed are solely personal and based on the analysis of public data and the author’s professional experience.

Over the past few days, we have seen headlines that, at first glance, appear to contradict each other.

While some reports speak of a decline in residential property transactions and increasingly cautious buyers, others highlight that transactions involving rural properties continue to grow.

This raises the question: is the Spanish real estate market really changing?

In my opinion, yes… but only in part of the market.

A few months ago, I wrote that Spain continues to make the mistake of placing very different property markets into the same basket. The figures published in recent days, rather than disproving this, once again confirm it.

Whenever national statistics are published, we talk about “the Spanish real estate market” as though the entire country behaves in the same way. Yet anyone who has worked in this sector for many years knows that this is simply not the case.

The market for primary residences is beginning to show a logical slowdown. After several years of strong price increases, many families have reached the limits of what they can afford. Combined with the cost of financing, it is only natural that buyers negotiate more, compare more options, and take longer before making a decision. This is not a market collapse, but rather a return to more rational market conditions.

The situation is very different in the second-home market and in many of Spain’s coastal tourist destinations. There, a significant proportion of demand comes from overseas buyers, motivated by factors such as quality of life, climate, security, wealth preservation and the prospect of retiring in Spain. In many cases, these buyers do not even rely on a mortgage from a Spanish bank.

There is also a third market that rarely features in public debate: the rural property market. While the urban residential market is losing momentum, transactions involving agricultural and recreational land continue to increase, driven by new investor profiles and generational renewal within the farming sector.

It is precisely because these very different markets are grouped together that many public debates tend to oversimplify reality.
One common argument is that foreign buyers are responsible for Spain’s housing affordability problems. However, according to the Spanish Association of Property Registrars, approximately 14% of all residential property purchases are made by foreign buyers. Put differently, around 86% of homes continue to be purchased by Spanish nationals.

Furthermore, that 14% includes very different types of buyers: foreign residents, European citizens relocating to Spain, second-home purchasers, and investors who are generally active in market segments that have little direct competition with the homes sought by Spanish families. Their impact can certainly be significant in specific municipalities, particularly along the coast and on the islands, but using these local circumstances to explain the entire national housing market is, quite simply, incorrect.

A similar situation exists with tourist accommodation. Nationally, tourist rental properties account for just over 1% of Spain’s total housing stock. In certain municipalities or tourist districts, their concentration may create local pressures and therefore requires balanced regulation. However, believing that eliminating tourist rentals would solve Spain’s nationwide housing shortage ignores the true scale of the problem.

Because the real problem lies elsewhere.

For years, Spain has simply built fewer homes than the market requires. Urban planning procedures remain excessively slow, there is a shortage of fully serviced building land in many cities, construction costs continue to rise, and many property owners remain reluctant to place their homes on the rental market because of the legal uncertainty they perceive.
Unless these structural issues are addressed decisively, we will continue looking for convenient scapegoats instead of tackling the real causes.

Statistics are essential.

But understanding how to interpret them is even more important.
Because a primary residence in Madrid, a holiday home in Marbella, and a rural estate in Andalusia do not belong to the same market.

They are different markets.

And they will probably require different solutions.

Sources Consulted

• Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) – Statistics on Property Transfers (ETDP): https://www.ine.es
• Spanish Association of Property Registrars – Real Estate Statistics (foreign buyer participation): https://www.registradores.org
• Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda (MIVAU) – Housing and Tourist Accommodation Statistics: https://www.mivau.gob.es
• Spanish Property Insight – Spain’s Three Housing Markets (November 2025)
• Idealista News (15 July 2026): Estate agents say high house prices are forcing greater negotiation and extending sales periods.
• Idealista News (15 July 2026): Transactions involving rural properties continue to rise, exceeding 15,000 transactions in May.

Alfred van Krimpen

President, GIPE – European Professional Real Estate Managers www.gipe.es