More than half of the foreigners who have flooded into Spain arrived after 2020, putting further pressure on the country’s already overwhelmed housing market, a report states.
Over the past week a series of protests demanding “affordable housing” have taken place across Spain, bring the nation’s years-long housing crisis back into the spotlight.
Responding to the protests, socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to sign two housing-related decrees that failed to pass in Congress — which promoted Sánchez to call for an upcoming November 29 snap election.
The newspaper ABC observed that while there has been a lot of talk over the past month on the root causes of Spain’s ongoing housing crisis, such as “vulture funds, speculation,” and “tourist apartments,” the pressure inflicted by mass migration into the housing market must also be factored in the conversation.
ABC, citing official data from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) detailed that 42.6 percent of Spain’s residents arrived in the country between 2020 and 2024, which translates to 9.46 million individuals. The information, obtained from the INE’s most recent census includes both persons who hold Spanish citizenship and those who do not.
The newspaper, however, pointed out that the census’ data has a cutoff date of January 1, 2025, and therefore excludes all subsequent arrivals to date. That information, ABC stressed, “is by no means a minor discrepancy,” given that foreign arrivals have reportedly continued to grow at an “almost identical” rate.
Supporters of the remigration movement attend a protest organized by several groups on August 2, 2026 in Ceuta, Spain.(Adri Salido/Getty Images)
Per the newspaper, Spain has gained nearly 828,000 more foreign-born residents from January 2025 to July 2026.
“Therefore, if we assume a conservative scenario in which the number of those who arrived before 2020 remains unchanged, those who have arrived since then would already account for about 47 percent of the total,” ABC explained.
“In other words, practically one in two, and that’s without even counting those who have arrived between July and October of this year.”
The statistics become even more shocking at a per-nationality level.
According to ABC, the proportion becomes much higher when nationality rather than country of birth is looked that. In that case, of the nearly 6.91 million foreigners residing in Spain as of January 1, 2025, nearly 3.7 million arrived between 2020 and 2024 — which translates to 53.5 percent.
To further illustrate the magnitude of the impact mass migration has had in Spain’s housing market, ABC cited its own early October estimations — also based on official INE statistical data — which shockingly revealed that out of the some ten million individuals who rent a property in Spain, about 5.2 million were born abroad.
That effectively means foreigners amount to 52 percent of the country’s renters.
“A population influx of this magnitude is, of course, also felt in the housing market, especially in the rental sector. Due to factors such as rent, family ties, and access to credit, this is the main gateway to the market for newcomers, who need to find housing without, in many cases, having a family home in Spain or the savings necessary to buy one,” ABC noted.
