Foreigners buy fewer apartments in Catalonia for the first time since 2023

BarcelonaBuyers from outside the State lose weight in the housing market for the first time since 2023. Between January and June, they have acquired 9% fewer properties than during the same period in 2025, according to the Notarial Observatory of Catalonia. Even so, they still carry out almost two out of every ten purchases authorized in the country, 18.5%. In absolute terms, there are 10,293 operations.

What does not stop rising, however, is the price they are willing to pay. Foreigners buy 16% above the average price in Catalonia. However, they assume increases of 3% compared to the first semester of 2025, while, in the overall market, the increases have exceeded 10% year-on-year in the first and second quarters.

Catalonia concentrates 16.5% of foreign sales formalized in Spain during the first semester (Catalonia represents, approximately, 16% of the population and 19% of the State's economy). At the state level, they have fallen more than in Catalonia, 13%. Regarding prices per square meter, although they have risen more –9.4%–, they continue to be more affordable.

Among the foreigners who do not live in Catalonia, the French continue to be those who buy the most: more than 3 out of every 10 apartments bought by foreigners end up in French hands (35%), followed by the Germans (9%). In contrast, among those who do live there, those who close the most operations are Italians and Moroccans, with proportions bordering on 11%.