Barely six in every 10 homes sold in Malaga are being purchased by local residents, new figures have revealed.

The province recorded 36,128 property transactions during 2025, but only 21,420 involved buyers residing locally.

That means Malaga residents accounted for just 59.3% of sales, far below the Spanish average of 78.5%.

A further 4,617 homes (12.8%) were purchased by people who live elsewhere in Spain.

Meanwhile, 10,091 properties were acquired by people registered as non-residents, representing 27.9% of all sales in the province.

The figures from Idealista show the extraordinary level of outside demand across Malaga and the Costa del Sol, where local buyers compete with overseas purchasers, second-home owners and investors from other parts of Spain.

Only Alicante had a higher proportion of purchases by non-residents, who accounted for one in three sales there.

More than 40% bought by outsiders

When non-residents and people living elsewhere in Spain are combined, they were responsible for 40.7% of all homes sold in Malaga province last year.

Local buyers therefore represented a clear majority, but their share was considerably smaller than in major residential markets such as Sevilla, Madrid and Barcelona.

In Sevilla province, 91.5% of sales went to people already living there. The equivalent figure was 93.2% in Madrid and 94.6% in Barcelona.

Malaga’s unusual buyer profile more closely resembles that of Alicante, the other Spanish province where intense international demand overlaps with a large domestic second-home market.

Alicante recorded 56,665 sales during 2025.

Of those, 18,857 (33.3%) went to non-residents, while 7,225 were purchased by people living elsewhere in Spain. Just 54% of all homes sold there went to existing Alicante residents.

How the rest of Andalucia compares

Cadiz also attracted a significant number of purchasers from elsewhere in Spain.

Of its 19,671 transactions, 14,027 involved local residents, while 4,929 went to buyers living in another province.

This means non-local Spanish residents accounted for 25.1% of the Cadiz market, one of the highest proportions in the country.

However, only 715 purchases, or 3.6%, were attributed to non-residents.

Almeria recorded 17,495 transactions, of which 12,542 went to local residents.

Another 3,513 were purchased by people living elsewhere in Spain and 1,440 by non-residents, giving the latter group an 8.2% share.

In Granada, local residents accounted for 82.2% of purchases, while non-residents represented just 3.9%.

Sevilla was among the most locally dominated markets in the country. Of its 27,748 sales, 25,398 went to buyers already living in the province, while just 189 were attributed to non-residents.

Madrid buyers head for the coast

Residents of Madrid were by far Spain’s most active buyers outside their home province.

They purchased more than 38,900 properties elsewhere in the country during 2025, including 1,703 in Malaga.

A further 1,521 homes were bought by Madrid residents in Cadiz and 1,394 in Almeria.

Alicante was their favourite Mediterranean destination, attracting 3,007 purchases, followed by Valencia with 2,040.

The figures suggest that Malaga’s housing market is being shaped by three competing groups, comprising local residents looking for primary homes, people elsewhere in Spain seeking investments or second properties, and non-resident purchasers drawn largely to the Costa del Sol.

Almost 752,000 homes were sold across Spain in 2025, the highest figure recorded since the property boom in 2007.

An analysis of Ministry of Housing data published by Idealista found that 696,072 transactions involved buyers resident in Spain.

Of these, 589,540 purchased within the province where they already lived, while 106,532 bought elsewhere in the country.

A further 54,977 transactions were classified as involving non-residents, equivalent to 7.3% of the national market.

However, the non-resident category also includes some transactions in which the buyer’s place of residence was not recorded by the notary, meaning it should not be treated as an exact measure of foreign demand.