U.S. Buyers Still Account for a Relatively Small Share of Spain’s Foreign Property Purchases. Their Spending Power Tells a Very Different Story.

MARBELLA, Spain — For decades, the foreign buyer on Spain’s Costa del Sol was relatively easy to picture.

British retirees bought apartments around Mijas and Estepona. Scandinavians gravitated toward Fuengirola and Marbella. Germans and Dutch buyers sought villas, golf properties and second homes along the Mediterranean.

The American buyer was the exception.

That is beginning to change.

A growing number of wealthy Americans are looking across the Atlantic and discovering a corner of southern Europe that many Europeans found decades ago: Marbella, Benahavís and the wider Costa del Sol.

And while Americans remain far from the largest group of foreign purchasers in Spain by number, their importance to the upper end of the property market is becoming considerably greater than their transaction share suggests.

In the first quarter of 2026, U.S. nationals represented about 1.57% of foreign property purchases in Spain. By the second quarter, their share had risen to approximately 1.79%.

That might sound insignificant alongside Britain’s roughly 7% share of foreign transactions.

But counting transactions tells only part of the story.

The more revealing number is what Americans are prepared to pay.

The latest detailed nationality pricing data from Spain’s Consejo General del Notariado put Americans at €3,465 per square metre in the first half of 2025 — the highest average price paid by any major foreign nationality in that dataset.

The average across all foreign purchasers was €2,417 per square metre.

In other words, Americans were paying roughly 43% more per square metre than the average international buyer.

America does not have to become Spain’s biggest foreign buyer market to become one of its most valuable.

From Florida and California to Marbella

The shift is increasingly visible on the ground.

Wealthy American purchasers are moving money into Madrid and the Costa del Sol, driven partly by a desire to diversify assets and establish a European base amid geopolitical and political uncertainty.

The Costa del Sol has spent decades building an infrastructure for wealthy international residents.

International schools.

Private hospitals.

Golf courses.

Marinas.

Beach clubs.

English-speaking lawyers and financial advisers.

Gated communities.

Michelin-starred restaurants.

And an enormous property industry accustomed to dealing with buyers who do not live in Spain.

For many Americans arriving for the first time, the scale of that international infrastructure can be surprising.

A €2 million or €3 million budget opens doors to Mediterranean villas, sea views, swimming pools and gated communities that can be difficult to replicate in New York, Miami, Los Angeles or other wealthy U.S. metropolitan markets.

Marbella is consequently starting to compete for a type of buyer it rarely encountered at scale 10 or 15 years ago.

Not simply the American tourist.

The American homeowner.

The €3,465-a-Square-Metre Buyer

The spending data help explain why estate agents are paying attention.

According to Spain’s notaries, Americans paid an average:

€3,465/m²

during the first half of 2025.

Compare that with the €2,417/m² average paid by foreign purchasers overall.

The U.S. figure even edged out other traditionally affluent foreign markets:

United States — €3,465/m²

Switzerland — €3,457/m²

Sweden — €3,421/m²

Norway — €3,292/m²

Germany — €3,270/m²

The ranking is significant.

The United States is not merely generating additional foreign demand.

It is generating demand disproportionately concentrated toward Spain’s expensive end.

And that is precisely where the Costa del Sol has been moving.

Marbella Is Almost Designed for This Buyer

Drive west from Málaga and the geography of the American opportunity becomes clearer.

Marbella’s luxury market is no longer limited to the traditional Golden Mile.

Modern villas and branded developments stretch through Marbella East, Nueva Andalucía, Sierra Blanca, Cascada de Camoján, Benahavís and toward Estepona.

At the very top sits La Zagaleta, the gated Benahavís estate that has become shorthand for ultra-prime Costa del Sol property.

Recent market data put the average transaction across Marbella at roughly €769,000 during the 12 months to April 2026, with an average price around €4,582/m². Estepona averaged approximately €429,000, while Mijas stood around €365,000.

At the extreme end, the figures are considerably higher.

A new 2026 ranking of Spain’s most expensive residential streets put Coto Zagaleta in Benahavís at a median asking price of around €10.5 million.

This is increasingly the world into which American buyers are arriving.

A Small Percentage Can Move a Luxury Market

This is where percentages become deceptive.

Imagine two international buyer groups.

One completes 1,000 transactions averaging €300,000.

The other completes 300 transactions averaging €2 million.

The first group dominates the transaction statistics.

The second represents twice as much capital.

That is why looking only at nationality market share can underestimate the importance of Americans.

For Marbella, Benahavís and the premium end of Estepona, this distinction is particularly important.

The relevant question is not simply:

How many Americans are buying?

It is:

What are they buying?

One Agency’s Numbers Show How Fast Things Can Change

National statistics inevitably move slowly.

Individual agencies can sometimes see changes earlier.

One striking example comes from Spanish real-estate firm Gilmar, where U.S. investment reportedly rose from 0.5% of its transactions in 2024 to 6.2% in 2025.

Within that firm’s Costa del Sol business, Americans had overtaken British purchasers as its leading foreign buyers.

That does not mean Americans have overtaken the British across the Costa del Sol.

They have not.

Britain remains deeply embedded in the region’s property market and continues to generate far greater transaction volumes.

But the figures offer an intriguing glimpse into what is happening at one part of the market.

At the luxury end, the nationality hierarchy may look very different from the headline national ranking.

Why Now?

There is not one explanation.

There are several.

The Search for a European Base

For some wealthy Americans, purchasing in Spain is not simply a holiday-home decision.

It is geographic diversification.

A European residence provides another base from which to travel, work and spend part of the year.

Some purchasers are increasingly viewing Spanish property as a hedge against political and geopolitical uncertainty — a potential “Plan B.”

That does not necessarily mean leaving America.

It can simply mean having somewhere else to go.

For a household with sufficient wealth, a villa in Marbella can simultaneously function as a lifestyle purchase, property investment and European foothold.

The Miami Comparison

There is another factor that should not be underestimated.

Value is relative.

A €3 million Marbella villa is extremely expensive by Spanish standards.

But the buyer is not necessarily comparing it with Málaga.

An American buyer might compare it with Miami, Palm Beach, Los Angeles, the Hamptons, Manhattan or another European luxury destination.

That reframes the price.

A modern villa with a swimming pool, Mediterranean views and substantial land might look expensive to a domestic Spanish purchaser while appearing comparatively attractive to a buyer accustomed to prime U.S. coastal markets.

This helps explain how the same property can inhabit two different pricing realities simultaneously.

Locally, it is luxury.

Internationally, it may look like value.

Málaga Airport Has Changed the Equation

There is also a less glamorous but enormously important reason Americans are looking south.

Access.

Málaga is no longer simply a regional airport feeding European holidaymakers into the Costa del Sol.

Its international connectivity has expanded substantially, and seasonal nonstop connections with the U.S. have reduced the psychological distance between southern Spain and the American East Coast.

For wealthy buyers, friction matters.

A destination that requires several connections is somewhere you visit occasionally.

A destination that can increasingly be reached directly or through a single major European hub begins to look like somewhere you can own a home.

One mortgage-platform dataset covering 2,651 international applicants found Málaga/Costa del Sol was the No.1 Spanish destination among its American applicants, attracting 19% of U.S. demand in its pipeline.

That is private-company data rather than an official market census, but it illustrates the direction of travel.

The Costa del Sol Has Changed Too

There is another side to the story.

Americans have changed.

But so has Marbella.

The old stereotype of the Costa del Sol — package holidays, golf resorts and British retirees — increasingly describes only one layer of a much larger economy.

Marbella now has a sophisticated high-end restaurant scene, international schools, private healthcare, wellness businesses, luxury hospitality and branded residences.

The coast increasingly functions year-round.

That matters because the new international buyer is not necessarily looking for a holiday apartment occupied for four weeks every August.

Many are looking for a second base.

Some work remotely.

Some spend several months in Europe.

Some relocate families.

Some invest.

And some simply want optionality.

The property must consequently function as a home rather than merely as a holiday property.

Then There Is the Dollar

Currency has also periodically worked in Americans’ favour.

A U.S. purchaser thinks about a Spanish property differently depending on the dollar-euro exchange rate.

A relatively strong dollar effectively discounts euro-denominated European property for someone whose wealth and income are held in dollars.

On a multimillion-euro transaction, even relatively modest currency movements can materially change the dollar cost of the acquisition.

That makes exchange rates particularly relevant at the luxury end, where the sums being converted are large.

The American buyer is not just watching Spanish property prices.

They may also be watching the euro.

The End of the Golden Visa Didn’t End the Attraction

Spain’s decision to end its property-linked golden visa might have been expected to reduce high-end international demand.

Yet the luxury market has proved more complicated.

For genuinely wealthy buyers, residency rights were often only one part of the attraction.

A person does not need a golden visa to own property in Spain.

For Americans interested primarily in spending part of the year in Europe, investing in real estate or maintaining a second home, the disappearance of the visa does not remove the fundamental appeal of Marbella.

The property itself remains the product.

And the Costa del Sol continues to sell something difficult to quantify in a spreadsheet:

Lifestyle.

A “Plan B” With a Swimming Pool

There is a curious convergence taking place in international luxury property.

Different buyers are arriving in Spain for different reasons but reaching similar conclusions.

Polish buyers concerned about a war on their country’s eastern frontier.

Middle Eastern investors reassessing geographic exposure.

Americans concerned about political or social instability.

Northern Europeans seeking sunshine.

Entrepreneurs seeking tax and lifestyle advantages.

Retirees wanting warmer winters.

Their motivations differ.

Their capital increasingly meets in the same places.

Madrid.

Mallorca.

And the Costa del Sol.

In Marbella, that global search for optionality happens to come with sunshine, golf courses and the Mediterranean.

The Bigger Story Isn’t America

The American story is compelling.

But the larger story may be what it says about the Costa del Sol itself.

For decades, southern Spain’s international property market was overwhelmingly European.

The British mattered enormously.

Then came Scandinavians, Germans, Dutch, Belgians, French and others.

Now the geographic radius is expanding.

Americans.

Poles.

Ukrainians.

Middle Eastern buyers.

International entrepreneurs whose nationality may tell you less about them than where their businesses and assets are located.

The Costa del Sol is consequently becoming something quite different from a conventional Spanish regional housing market.

It is becoming a global market for residential property that happens to be located in southern Spain.

NLS Analysis: Follow the Capital, Not Just the Passport Count

For The NLS, the emergence of the American purchaser exposes one of the weaknesses in how international property markets are usually measured.

We rank buyers by transaction numbers.

But transaction volume and economic importance are not the same thing.

If American purchasers represent around 1%–2% of international transactions but disproportionately buy €1 million, €3 million or €5 million properties, their influence on the premium market can be dramatically greater than their headline percentage implies.

The notarial pricing data provide compelling evidence.

At €3,465/m², U.S. buyers were paying approximately 43% above the average foreign buyer in H1 2025.

And there is evidence that demand itself is expanding.

In that same H1 2025 notarial dataset, purchases by Americans increased 14.3% year-on-year, making the U.S. one of the faster-growing major foreign markets.

Now the Registradores data indicate America’s share of foreign transactions moving from approximately 1.57% in Q1 2026 to 1.79% in Q2.

The direction is difficult to ignore.

For Marbella Agents, America Requires a Different Strategy

The opportunity is not simply translating a Spanish listing into English.

American buyers arrive with different expectations.

Property sizes may be understood in square feet rather than square metres.

Financing expectations can differ.

The buying process is unfamiliar.

The role of lawyers, notaries, deposits and reservation contracts needs explanation.

Property taxes need context.

Currency exposure matters.

Residency and tax questions emerge quickly.

Even terminology differs.

What an American calls a “realtor,” “closing,” “HOA” or “property tax” does not map perfectly onto the Spanish system.

The agencies that understand this are not simply marketing properties to Americans.

They are reducing the friction of buying Spain.

That distinction matters.

The MLS Question

There is another structural difference between the two property markets.

American buyers come from a country where the Multiple Listing Service is deeply embedded in residential real estate.

They are accustomed to a market in which agents collaborate, listings are broadly distributed and buyer agents can search large inventories on behalf of clients.

Spain’s property market remains much more fragmented.

The same property may appear with several agencies.

Information can vary.

Availability can be unclear.

Commission structures are not always transparent.

Exclusive listings are less universal.

For a sophisticated American purchaser accustomed to MLS infrastructure, that fragmentation can be surprising.

And as more Americans enter Spain, their expectations may ultimately put pressure on the Spanish property industry to become more transparent, collaborative and data-driven.

The NLS Conclusion

The headline statistic says Americans represent less than 2% of Spain’s foreign property purchases.

That number risks missing the story.

The more revealing figures are these:

€3,465 per square metre.

Approximately 43% above the foreign-buyer average in the latest detailed notarial nationality pricing data.

14.3% year-on-year growth.

In U.S. purchases in H1 2025.

1.57% → 1.79%.

The movement in America’s share of foreign transactions between Q1 and Q2 2026.

Then there is what agents are seeing on the ground.

One major Spanish agency reported U.S. investment jumping from 0.5% to 6.2% of its transactions in a single year, with Americans becoming its leading foreign buyer group on the Costa del Sol.

None of this means Americans are about to replace the British, Dutch or Germans as the dominant buyers of Spanish property.

They do not need to.

Because in Marbella’s luxury market, the more important question is not necessarily who buys the most homes.