Costa del Sol and wider Malaga province have second highest number of foreign homeowners in Spain

Some 19% of them were born in other countries, the same proportion as in the Balearic Islands, with only Alicante ahead at 25%

Cristina Vallejo

Monday, 3 March 2025, 10:34

The population of Malaga province is growing mainly due to the influx of people from other countries as they choose the Costa del Sol not only for holidays but also to live and work. For example, if last year the provincial population increased by 14,402 residents, some 14,005 of them were born abroad. This state of affairs is reflected in other statistics too. For example, there are those that analyse the labour market, which also reports on the growing proportion of foreign talent turning up in companies set up in Malaga. Likewise it is also reflected in the statistics on real estate. According to the latter, which are compiled by the national 'cadastre' (register of properties), there are 141,953 foreigners who own homes in Malaga. This figure makes this province the second in the whole country with the highest number of foreign-born individuals with at least one property. Malaga is behind only Alicante, where the number of foreign-born residential property owners exceeds 263,000. Malaga is ahead of Barcelona, Madrid and the Balearic Islands, which occupy third, fourth and fifth places respectively, with 88,039, 81,199 and 78,123 foreign homeowners.

As the cadastre specifies in the description of the methodology for drawing up this statistic, in order to determine the geographical origin of the owners it uses the NIF tax identification number that, in addition to nationality, also makes it possible to discriminate whether the holder with rights over a property is a natural person or a legal entity. For the purposes of this report, we limit ourselves to owners who are natural persons, or rather, private citizens. Those that are companies of any kind are far fewer in any case: of the total of 755,037 homeowners in Malaga, just over 40,200 are companies of various kinds, including public companies, which own just over 88,000 homes out of the total of 954,700 residential properties in the province.

Turning to the Andalucía region, the province dropping in behind Malaga is Almeria, where there are nearly 36,000 homeowners born in other countries, while in Granada and Cadiz there are 16,830 and just over 15,100 respectively.

Relative data

As well as counting the absolute number of foreign owners, what is also interesting is to see how much they represent in the total in relative terms, that is, as a percentage. Again Malaga stands out in these figures: foreign-born homeowners account for around 19% of the total, so in this case Malaga ties with the Balearics. However, once again the lead position is taken by Alicante, where a quarter of homeowners are of foreign origin. In Andalucía, in second place after the Costa del Sol province is Almeria, where 11.75% of all residential property owners are of non-Spanish origin. In very touristy provinces such as Las Palmas, Castellón and Valencia, the percentage of foreign owners does not even reach 10%. In Barcelona and Madrid they do not even reach 5% of the total.

24% of Malaga province's residents are foreigners

The share of foreigners in home ownership is below this proportion at less than 20%.

Let's stay in Malaga and compare the proportion of foreign owners with other parameters. Firstly, with the overall population. According to the latest data from Spain's INE national statistics institute, the 428,321 foreign inhabitants are almost 24% of Malaga's total population of around 1.79 million. This means that they are under-represented among property owners because those born outside Spain do not even represent 20% of 'bricks and mortar' owners. Secondly, let us compare this with those who have recently been buying property. According to the latest figures from the national association of property registrars, Malaga is the province with the third highest proportion of property purchases by foreigners (32.35%), behind only Alicante (45.67%) and the Balearic Islands (32.81%).

Almost all foreign homeowners have only one property

How many homes do foreign owners own? In Malaga, the majority (130,363 of the approximately 142,000 in total) own just one house. Another 11,480 own between one and five houses and 100 owners have between six and ten houses in their name. Then there are nine who own up to 25 houses and only one individual has between 25 and 100 flats in their name.

These figures show that Malaga is not one of the provinces with the highest concentration of residential property ownership. How many owners of foreign origin have more than five properties in this territory? Just 110 people, that is less than 0.10% of the total number of foreign property owners. Meanwhile, Alicante is the province with the most foreigners owning over five residential properties: 351, 0.13% of the total. In Barcelona, the 145 in the same situation represent 0.16% and in Santa Cruz de Tenerife the 134 owners with more than five flats represent 0.27% of the total number of foreign owners.

Another figure that can be taken from the above: in Malaga, around 11,600 foreigners (just over 8% of the total) own more than one property. This percentage is four points below the figure for Santa Cruz de Tenerife - the location with the highest percentage in this category - where nearly 13% of foreigners own more than one flat.

76% of homeowners in Malaga are Spanish-born individuals

Only in Alicante is this percentage lower at 70%.

It is to be expected that, with the significant proportion of foreign homeowners in Malaga, the proportion of Spanish-born owners is among the lowest in the country at 76%. Only in Alicante is this percentage lower: 70%. Meanwhile, in Barcelona 92% of the owners are Spanish-born, and in provinces such as Badajoz, Zamora, Cordoba, Palencia, Valladolid and Cáceres their proportion exceeds 97%.

In Malaga, therefore, of the 755,037 persons or companies that appear in the cadastre as homeowners, 572,823 are individuals with a Spanish NIF.

How many properties do the Spanish own?

17% of Spanish owners

So, how concentrated is the 'bricks and mortar' among domestic owners? As is the case among foreigners, the majority of Spanish owners of residential property rights have just the one home. Of the 572,823 Spaniards who own a flat in Malaga, 475,718 have just that: a single home. Those who own more than one home are 97,105, 17% of the total. In Ourense, the Balearics or Lugo, practically a quarter of Spanish private homeowners own more than one home.

Meanwhile, the province with the lowest percentage of owners of more than one home is Cadiz (13.5%) and Seville is very close behind is Seville, not reaching 15% of the total number of homeowners.

Meanwhile, in Malaga only 0.3% of Spanish homeowners own more than five homes, compared to 1.16% in the Balearic Islands and a similar percentage in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

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