Costa del Sol Foreign Buyers: Residents vs Non-residents
What percentage of foreign buyers on the Costa del Sol are residents vs non-residents? Analysis of real estate transaction data from Spain's Portal Penotariado.com for the 12 months ending April 2026 reveals distinct patterns between resident and non-resident foreign property buyers across different municipalities on the Costa del Sol.
Note about Methodology: You won't find these stats as I have presented them anywhere other than here. The way the notaries portal tables show these differences between resident buyers and non-residents buyers numerically make this easy to read the percentages as if they're the split within each nationality. They're not. They're each nationality's share of the entire foreign market. If you want to know whether eg. British buyers are mainly residents or non-residents, you have to compare the British figures with each other. And that is what I have done below. Like anything, there might be errors, so please double check the figures yourself before using them in any meaningful way to be sure. Takeway 1: Málaga City and Benalmádena attract a high proportion of resident Italian buyers. In Málaga City, Italians comprise 14% of foreign buyers, and 91% of them are residents. In Benalmádena, Italians make up 11% of the foreign market, with 92% operating as residents. Although there is no data to corroborate this, it is widely assumed that these may be people from Argentina using their grandfather rights to obtain Italian citizenship.
Takeway 2: British buyers hold the largest market share in several municipalities but choose residency based on location. In Sotogrande, British buyers account for 41% of all foreign transactions, with 42% registered as residents. In Manilva, they represent 21% of the market, with 30% establishing residency.
Takeway 3: Holiday home purchasers, classified as non-residents, dominate the market in Fuengirola and Marbella. In Fuengirola, Swedish, Dutch, Polish, and Finnish buyers all have non-resident shares exceeding 82%. In Marbella, Dutch buyers have an 89% non-resident share, and Polish buyers reach 90% non-resident status.
Takeway 4: Casares and Estepona show a high concentration of non-resident Dutch and Belgian buyers. In Casares, Belgian buyers are 92% non-residents, and Dutch buyers are 94% non-residents. In Estepona, Dutch buyers represent the top foreign nationality at 15% of the total, with 91% buying as non-residents.
Takeway 5: Torremolinos presents a split where Dutch buyers are primarily non-residents while Italian and British buyers are mostly residents. Dutch buyers form 20% of the market with 67% non-residents. Italian buyers are 76% residents, and British buyers are 62% residents.
Understanding the tables below…
Using Notary data, the tables show the top 5 foreign buyer nationalities for each municipality, and the rest are combined in “Others”. So in that first example, we can see that 13.6% of foreign buyers in Malaga City are Italians, of which 91.4% are residents and 8.6% are non-residents. So the vast majority are residents. Whereas in Malaga, slightly more buyers from the Netherlands are non-residents (52.6%) than residents (47.4%).
Málaga City
| Ranking | Nationality | Total % | Resident Share (%) | Non-resident Share (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Italy | 13.55% | 91.4% | 8.6% |
| 2 | France | 7.36% | 65.2% | 34.8% |
| 3 | Netherlands | 6.08% | 47.4% | 52.6% |
| 4 | United Kingdom | 5.98% | 71.4% | 28.6% |
| 5 | Germany | 5.12% | 62.5% | 37.5% |
Benalmádena
| Ranking | Nationality | Total % | Resident Share (%) | Non-resident Share (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Italy | 11.04% | 92.2% | 7.8% |
| 2 | Netherlands | 10.72% | 28.0% | 72.0% |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 7.18% | 43.3% | 56.7% |
| 4 | United States | 6.11% | 31.6% | 68.4% |
| 5 | Poland | 5.89% | 25.5% | 74.5% |
Sotogrande (CP:11310)
| Ranking | Nationality | Total % | Resident Share (%) | Non-resident Share (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United Kingdom | 41.35% | 41.9% | 58.1% |
| 2 | France | 8.65% | 33.3% | 66.7% |
| 3 | Germany | 7.69% | 25.0% | 75.0% |
| 4 | United States | 5.77% | 50.0% | 50.0% |
| 5 | Netherlands | 3.85% | 50.0% | 50.0% |
Fuengirola
| Ranking | Nationality | Total % | Resident Share (%) | Non-resident Share (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sweden | 12.22% | 17.5% | 82.5% |
| 2 | Netherlands | 10.26% | 15.7% | 84.3% |
| 3 | Poland | 9.37% | 11.4% | 88.6% |
| 4 | Finland | 7.31% | 10.9% | 89.1% |
| 5 | United Kingdom | 6.69% | 34.7% | 65.3% |
Marbella
| Ranking | Nationality | Total % | Resident Share (%) | Non-resident Share (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United Kingdom | 11.64% | 22.3% | 77.7% |
| 2 | Sweden | 8.95% | 17.5% | 82.5% |
| 3 | Netherlands | 8.51% | 10.9% | 89.1% |
| 4 | Poland | 7.29% | 10.0% | 90.0% |
| 5 | Germany | 6.75% | 16.0% | 84.0% |
Mijas
| Ranking | Nationality | Total % | Resident Share (%) | Non-resident Share (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United Kingdom | 19.20% | 26.7% | 73.3% |
| 2 | Netherlands | 11.43% | 14.7% | 85.3% |
| 3 | Poland | 7.16% | 9.2% | 90.8% |
| 4 | Germany | 5.89% | 17.3% | 82.7% |
| 5 | Ireland | 5.18% | 17.6% | 82.4% |
Torremolinos
| Ranking | Nationality | Total % | Resident Share (%) | Non-resident Share (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netherlands | 20.11% | 33.0% | 67.0% |
| 2 | Italy | 7.97% | 76.2% | 23.8% |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 7.02% | 62.1% | 37.9% |
| 4 | France | 6.64% | 59.9% | 40.1% |
| 5 | Poland | 6.26% | 15.2% | 84.8% |
Casares
| Ranking | Nationality | Total % | Resident Share (%) | Non-resident Share (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United Kingdom | 17.56% | 30.6% | 69.4% |
| 2 | Belgium | 14.45% | 7.8% | 92.2% |
| 3 | Netherlands | 13.88% | 6.1% | 93.9% |
| 4 | Poland | 9.35% | 18.2% | 81.8% |
| 5 | Germany | 8.50% | 20.0% | 80.0% |
Manilva
| Ranking | Nationality | Total % | Resident Share (%) | Non-resident Share (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United Kingdom | 21.23% | 29.6% | 70.4% |
| 2 | Belgium | 10.20% | 9.6% | 90.4% |
| 3 | Poland | 9.08% | 10.8% | 89.2% |
| 4 | Netherlands | 7.12% | 15.7% | 84.3% |
| 5 | Ireland | 5.17% | 21.7% | 78.3% |
Estepona
| Ranking | Nationality | Total % | Resident Share (%) | Non-resident Share (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netherlands | 15.21% | 9.5% | 90.5% |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 13.19% | 28.1% | 71.9% |
| 3 | Poland | 11.02% | 9.2% | 90.8% |
| 4 | Sweden | 6.40% | 19.5% | 80.5% |
| 5 | Belgium | 6.06% | 11.9% | 88.1% |
Benahavís
| Ranking | Nationality | Total % | Resident Share (%) | Non-resident Share (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United Kingdom | 14.62% | 29.1% | 70.9% |
| 2 | Sweden | 11.08% | 25.5% | 74.5% |
| 3 | Netherlands | 8.96% | 15.8% | 84.2% |
| 4 | Belgium | 7.78% | 9.1% | 90.9% |
| 5 | Germany | 6.60% | 14.2% | 85.8% |
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