Is now the time to invest in Spain?
· By Guerson Meyer
Spain closed 2025 with GDP growing at 2.8%, ahead of Europe's main economies. Euribor, which stood at 3.7% in January 2024, fell to a range of 2.1% to 2.3%. Mortgage lending rose 33.4% year on year and more than 600,000 sales were completed, 12.3% more than the previous year. Engel & Völkers' 2025-2026 market report, published this week, confirms what we had been seeing on the ground: the cycle is not over; it is reorganising.
Madrid is not cooling, it is tightening
In the capital, the average price reached €7,145/m², 15.5% higher than the previous year. The sharpest rises are concentrated in the areas where premium demand has historically been focused: Salamanca (€9,672/m²), Chamberí (+22.6%) and Retiro (+16.5%). In these districts, more than 40% of transactions exceeded one million euros.
One figure explains the profile of this cycle better than any other: in the city of Madrid, 60% of purchases are completed with own funds, without bank financing. In other words, the buyer entering Madrid's prime market does not depend on the interest-rate cycle. That is why movements in Euribor have barely slowed demand — they have only broadened the base.
International buyers continue to grow. They account for 24% of transactions in the city, with a notable presence from Argentina, Mexico and European countries. In premium rentals, the share of foreign tenants exceeds 56%.
60% of purchases in Madrid are completed without a mortgage. The capital coming in does not depend on the interest-rate cycle.
The Costa del Sol enters a new phase
While Madrid sustains its structural tension, the Costa del Sol is tracing a different curve. In Estepona, the Casasola-Benamara area rose 102.3% in twelve months to €5,529/m². Cancelada-Bel Air, on the New Golden Mile corridor, grew by 42.8%. In Marbella, Sierra Blanca reached €9,133/m², 69% above the previous year.
Buyers here are mostly European: Germans, Britons, Dutch, Poles and Scandinavians account for more than 80% of transactions. In Puerto Banús, the share of foreign buyers exceeds 95%. And in Marbella, two out of three purchases are funded with own resources.
The profile, however, differs from Madrid's: in the city of Málaga, 95% of purchases are for owner occupation. In Estepona, 44% are for investment. These are complementary markets, not substitutes.
The opportunity no one is looking at
There is a gap that few are naming in this report: Latin American buyers, who account for around 24% of transactions in Madrid, are practically absent from the Costa del Sol. The top foreign buyers there are from the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium and Germany. Latin America barely features.
This is the natural opening where Sophiq is positioning itself. Madrid gave us a buyer who understands prime, buys with own funds and diversifies geographically. The Costa del Sol opens up a corridor that this same investor has yet to reach, in areas whose fundamentals are moving — and moving with conviction.
Conclusion
The question is not whether Spain is expensive. It is whether the cycle we are living through resembles the last one. The data say it does not: more solvent buyers, less dependence on credit and a market more geographically diversified than ever. The margin for error has narrowed. The margin for opportunity has not.
Source: Engel & Völkers Market Report Spain and Andorra 2025-2026.