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What Official Registry Data Actually Shows About Foreign Buyers in the Balearics
Almost a third of every property sold in the Balearic Islands now goes to a foreign buyer, the highest share of any region in Spain. That figure comes from the Colegio de Registradores, Spain's official land registrars' association, not from an estate agency report, and it's worth looking at what the numbers actually say rather than relying on the general impression everyone already has.
The Headline Figure
In the second quarter of 2026, foreign buyers accounted for 32.2% of all homes sold in the Balearic Islands, according to the Colegio de Registradores' Estadística Registral Inmobiliaria, a new historical high for the region. That put the Balearics ahead of every other Spanish region, comfortably clear of the Comunidad Valenciana and Canarias, which have traditionally competed for the top spot. Nationally, foreign buyers reached 15.98% of all transactions in the same quarter, itself a record, which makes the Balearic figure roughly double the national average.
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Who's Actually Buying
Nationally, British buyers have consistently led the nationality rankings in recent registrar reports, typically around 8% of all foreign purchases, followed closely by German and Dutch buyers, each usually in the 6% range. Moroccan, French, Romanian, Polish and Italian buyers round out the rest of the top tier, each contributing roughly 5% nationally. The Balearics specifically stand out for the strength of German buyers, whose share here is notably higher than the national pattern, a genuine outlier compared with the rest of Spain. Roughly 55% of all foreign buyers nationally come from within the EU, with the remainder split between the UK, other European countries outside the bloc, and buyers from further afield.
What This Is Doing to Prices
The same registrar data shows the Balearics running close behind Madrid as the second most expensive region in Spain by price per square metre, with figures in the region of €4,100 to €4,200 per square metre in early 2026 reporting periods. Registrar analysts have directly linked the intensity of foreign demand to sustained price growth in the archipelago, noting that the current upward trend resumed a longer-running pattern that had briefly paused in 2023 after several years of continuous increases.
A Trend, Not a One-Off Spike
Looking across recent quarters rather than a single snapshot, the pattern is one of steady increase rather than volatility. Figures from the past two years have moved from around 28% to over 32% of Balearic transactions going to foreign buyers, with each quarterly reading landing at or near a new high for the series. Whatever quarter you look at, the direction has been consistently upward, which is different from a market experiencing a temporary surge.
Why This Kind of Data Matters More Than Anecdote
It's easy to have a strong intuitive sense that "everyone" is buying in Mallorca right now, and considerably more useful to have an actual number behind that impression. Registrar data is drawn directly from completed transactions recorded at the Land Registry, which makes it a more reliable measure of what's actually happening in the market than survey-based estimates or individual agency reporting. For anyone weighing up buying or selling in the current market, understanding that this is a genuine, sustained structural shift rather than a temporary trend is useful context for timing a decision.
The Practical Takeaway
The numbers confirm what most people in the southwest already sense day to day: foreign demand in the Balearics isn't just strong, it's now stronger than anywhere else in Spain, and the trend has been building steadily rather than spiking. Whether that continues depends partly on the ongoing policy debate around non-resident purchases we've covered separately, but for now, the registrar data shows a market that keeps setting new records rather than cooling off.
