The Dutch Just Overtook the Brits and Germans in Spain — And Most Agents Haven't Noticed Yet

New data shows that Dutch buyers have overtaken both the British and the Germans as the top foreign purchasers of Spanish property — for the first time ever.

For decades, "international buyer" in Spain has meant one of two things: British or German. That's the assumption baked into most agencies' marketing, their ad targeting, their listing descriptions, even their staff hiring.

That assumption just got outdated.

New data from Spain's notaries' association (Consejo General del Notariado), compiled by Idealista, shows that Dutch buyers have overtaken both the British and the Germans as the top foreign purchasers of Spanish property — for the first time ever.

The numbers

In 2025, non-resident foreign buyers accounted for 18.8% of all home purchases in Spain — 52,781 properties in total. That's actually down slightly from 21.1% in 2023, when the post-pandemic relocation wave was still in full swing. But the headline isn't the overall slowdown — it's who's leading the pack now that the dust has settled.

Dutch buyers picked up 6,289 homes as non-residents in 2025. Add Dutch residents already living in Spain, and the total climbs to 8,354 transactions. That puts them ahead of:

• Germans — 6,233 (non-resident)
• British — 6,152 (non-resident)
• Belgians — 4,305
• French — 3,913

For context: the Brits and Germans have dominated this list for as long as anyone in the industry can remember. The Dutch quietly building toward this for years, and 2025 is the year they finally took the top spot.

Where the Dutch are actually buying

This isn't spread evenly. Two regions are doing almost all the work:

Costa Blanca (Alicante province) is the epicenter — particularly Javea, Torrevieja, and Denia, with growing activity in Orihuela, Moraira, Altea, Calpe, and Alicante city itself.

Costa del Sol is a strong second, concentrated around Marbella, Estepona, Mijas, and Málaga city — areas Dutch buyers favor for established infrastructure and solid rental yield potential.

One agency, Lucas Fox, reported Dutch buyer activity grew by almost 50% between 2023 and 2025, with €52 million in transactions — much of it concentrated in Javea and, interestingly, also extending into Girona.

The mayor of Alhaurín el Grande (a town with a long-established expat community historically dominated by British and Moroccan residents) put it plainly: 2026 looks to be the first year the Dutch overtake the British in his municipality's foreign population.

Why now? It's not just the weather

Agents on the ground point to two main drivers:

1. Tax pressure back home. The Netherlands' Box 3 wealth tax rules are pushing Dutch investors to look for assets and second homes outside the country. Spanish property — especially anything with rental income potential — has become an increasingly attractive vehicle.

2. Lifestyle-plus-yield buyers. Dutch buyers aren't just chasing sun. Many are explicitly looking at holiday rental potential along the Malaga–Marbella coast, blending personal lifestyle goals with an income strategy. That's a more sophisticated buyer profile than the classic "retire to the coast" archetype — and it changes what they respond to in marketing, in follow-up, and in the sales conversation.

What this means if you sell property to international buyers

If your lead generation, your ad targeting, or your follow-up sequences are still built primarily around English and German speakers, you're optimizing for yesterday's market.

This isn't a call to abandon British or German buyers — they're still a massive share of the market (6,152 and 6,233 respectively isn't small). It's a call to stop treating Dutch buyers as a secondary audience. They're now the single largest non-resident buyer nationality in Spain, concentrated in exactly the regions — Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol — where most independent agents and boutique agencies already operate.

The agents who build proper Dutch-language ad creative, Dutch-speaking (or Dutch-capable AI) follow-up, and nurture sequences that speak to the tax-driven, yield-conscious Dutch buyer profile are going to out-compete agents still running everything in English with a German afterthought.

The market shifted. The question is who notices first.

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