In 2024, half of all homes sold in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife were purchased by foreign buyers, while one in four was bought by non-residents, according to data presented on Friday by Alberto Martínez Lacambra, director-general of the Notarial Technology Centre. The information comes from the Single Computerised Notarial Index, which records all notarised real-estate transactions.
Martínez warned that the Canary Islands are now a region where non-resident foreign purchasers (19.4%) outnumber resident foreigners (16.7%), signalling a growing trend of investment-driven acquisitions by buyers who do not live in the archipelago.
He also noted that around 40% of all current home purchases in Tenerife are made by foreigners, a figure he emphasised during the presentation of the new Notarial Statistics Portal—a tool that, for the first time, offers real market prices based on notarised deeds rather than advertised values.
Foreign demand has surged over time
Martínez highlighted that in 2007, the year Spanish property prices reached their historic peak, 14% of buyers in the Canary Islands were foreigners (compared with 7.5% nationally).
With the price collapse that followed the financial crisis, the proportion of foreign purchasers in the islands soared to 48.8% in 2013, and currently stands at 36% as of September 2025.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife now ranks among the Spanish provinces most affected by foreign property purchases, alongside the Balearic Islands, Alicante and Málaga.
Where foreign buyers come from
Between 2007 and September 2025, 35.16% of all homes sold in the Canary Islands were bought by foreigners. Among them:
- 17.99% were Italian
- 16.15% German
- 15.18% British
At the national level, foreigners accounted for 17.11% of all purchases in the same period:
- 14.25% British
- 7.49% German
- 7.36% French
An increasingly inaccessible market for young people
Martínez also addressed the growing difficulties faced by young people trying to access the housing market. In 2007, people aged 18 to 30 accounted for 21.6% of home purchases in the Canary Islands (22.5% in Spain). Today, this figure has fallen to just 6.5%, compared with 9–10% nationally.
He explained that the market was still relatively open to younger buyers between 2007 and 2012, but from 2013 onwards, banks began tightening credit conditions. As a result, young buyers have been steadily pushed out of the market ever since.
“This problem has been festering since 2013,” he warned. “If we don’t act quickly, soon we will have to consider ‘young buyers’ as those aged 18 to 50.”
Housing prices 94% higher than in 2014
Since 2014, property prices in the Canary Islands have risen by a staggering 94%, leaving affordability far behind the growth of household incomes. Martínez noted that prices are now more than 30 points above disposable household income compared with 2013.
If 2007 is used as a reference point, the rise appears “more bearable”, as current prices are still lower in real terms due to inflation.
Price per square metre
- Canary Islands (overall): €2,293 per m² (Spain: €2,166)
- Las Palmas province: €2,166 per m² — 22% higher than 2007 and 83% higher than 2014
- Santa Cruz de Tenerife province: price per m² has increased 107% since 2014, rising from €1,737 to €2,431
Spain as a whole surpassed its nominal 2007 peak this year; the Canary Islands had already done so in 2022.
Today, the archipelago is among the most expensive regions in Spain, with prices above the national average alongside the Balearic Islands, Madrid, the Basque Country, Catalonia and Navarre.
When adjusted for inflation, however, the real price of housing is 27% lower than in 2007.
Martínez concluded with a stark message: “I don’t know whether there is a bubble or not, but what is clear is that there is an extraordinary lack of new housing supply. We need to build more.”
