Nearly half of all homes purchased in Spain are now being bought without a mortgage, new data has revealed.
And nowhere is the trend more visible than on the Costa del Sol. where wealthy foreign buyers are increasingly paying millions of euros in cash for luxury properties.
According to Malaga notary Carmen Casasola, it is not unusual for overseas buyers to purchase homes worth several million euros without any bank financing whatsoever.
‘Someone will buy a €20 million property and pay with a cheque,’ Casasola told Malaga Hoy, describing a market increasingly dominated by affluent international buyers who view Malaga’s prices as cheap compared to cities such as Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin or New York.
The phenomenon is most common in exclusive areas including Marbella, Benahavis and Estepona, particularly in luxury developments such as La Zagaleta, La Quinta and Sierra Blanca.
However, Casasola says the trend is increasingly spreading into Malaga city itself, with high-end developments such as Malaga Towers, El Limonar and La Malagueta attracting foreign buyers willing to pay outright.
‘Malaga has changed enormously,’ she explained. ‘Foreigners used to buy almost exclusively on the coast, but now many are purchasing in the city too.’
The typical cash buyer is often a northern European, British, American, German, Dutch or French national looking for a second home rather than an investment property.
According to Casasola, many simply want somewhere to spend part of the year and are not necessarily planning to rent the homes out.
While wealthy international buyers continue to reshape the upper end of the market, local residents face a very different reality.
Official figures show the average value of mortgages taken out in Malaga rose by 15% during the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2025, reflecting the relentless rise in property prices across the province.
Casasola says the people relying on mortgages are generally local families and first-time buyers in their thirties who still need somewhere to live despite soaring prices.
‘They are ordinary people buying a home with their partner because they need somewhere to live or their current property has become too small,’ she said.
As affordability worsens, another trend has exploded across Andalucia: parents helping children onto the property ladder.
Since the Junta introduced a 99% tax relief on parental donations in 2019, the number of recorded donations in Malaga has surged from just 440 in 2011 to 8,706 in 2024.
Across Andalucia, the figure jumped from 4,510 donations in 2015 to more than 44,000 last year.
