Among foreigners registering home purchases in Spain, Germans rank third. Among foreigners applying for a Spanish mortgage, they rank first. That gap hints at how this buyer works: the numbers come early. Financing, purchase costs and tax are on their mind before they ever call an agency.

For agencies and developers on the Costa del Sol, the consequence is uncomfortable. The decision about which agency a German buyer contacts is often made during research your sales team never sees. If your marketing doesn't answer their questions clearly, and in German, at that stage, you aren't turned down. You never hear from them in the first place.

Many agencies on the coast – British, Scandinavian or Dutch-run – default to English for every market. This article looks at the latest figures and at the specific points where that default costs you German-speaking buyers. For the wider picture across all nationalities, see our article on reaching international property buyers.

Where DACH buyers stand in the market

In Q2 2026, 15.98% of all home purchases registered in Spain were made by foreigners – the highest share on record, according to the Colegio de Registradores. In the province of Málaga it was more than one in three: 37.01%.

At the top of the nationality table, the margins are tight: British buyers 6.99%, Dutch 6.94% and Germans 6.11% of foreign purchases. Austrians and Swiss don't appear among the largest groups in this dataset. They do, however, in the mortgage figures.

One more number that isn't strictly about property: in 2025, a record 12.0 million German holidaymakers visited Spain, according to the INE. For many future buyers, the first contact with the region is as a guest.

What this means for your marketing

There are two contact windows. The first is here: on holiday, in a restaurant, at the hotel reception, on the golf course. The second is at home, weeks or months later, in front of a screen. Rely on the big portals alone and you cover neither properly. Here you lack a physical presence; at home you lack the German-language context that turns a listing into something a buyer can decide on.

Financing first: what the mortgage data shows

At mortgage broker idealista/hipotecas, 15.6% of all mortgage requests from non-residents in Q2 2026 came from Germany – first place, as in Q3 2025. Switzerland was third with 9.4%, behind the UK (10.6%). Andalusia received 19.9% of these foreign requests, second only to the Valencian Community.

A word of caution: these are requests to one broker, not completed purchases. The base differs from the Registradores data, so the percentages can't be compared directly. The ranking, however, is a signal: for German buyers, financing is an early concern. And with the Swiss, a second German-speaking market sits near the top.

What this means for your marketing

Prices, purchase costs and financing belong in the first set of documents, not the third meeting. A buyer planning a mortgage needs reliable figures early: price, taxes, notary and land registry fees, running costs. If they can't find them with you, they'll look elsewhere – and may find another property while they're at it. A German-speaking lawyer or mortgage adviser on your side isn't an extra service. It's a selling point.

Language decides before the first contact

An international study by CSA Research of 8,709 consumers in 29 countries found that 76% prefer to buy when product information is in their own language, and that 40% never buy from websites in another language. The study covers online shopping in general, not property. It isn't proof for a property purchase, but it is a strong pointer.

What this means for your marketing

For this buyer, English is not the neutral option. Plenty of Germans read an English brochure without difficulty – and then compare it with the next offer that gives them the same information in German. Four touchpoints decide it: the property brochure, the landing page, the enquiry form and your first reply.

Five levers for agencies and developers

1. German-language documents, not translated brochures

Usable and built area clearly separated, a floor plan, the energy certificate, a breakdown of price and purchase costs and, for new builds, a timeline to completion. In Andalusia, consumer law (Decreto 218/2005) already requires much of this information. Preparing it in German meets the obligation and gives this buyer exactly what they're looking for.

2. Answer cost and legal questions before they're asked

NIE number, transfer tax or VAT, notary, land registry, mortgages for non-residents: these questions will come. A short German-language guide to your property, prepared with a law firm or mortgage adviser, answers them before they become an obstacle. Have tax and legal content checked by a professional and dated before it goes out.

3. Be visible where the research happens

Portals show the property. What they rarely provide is context: market trends, the area, the buying process, who to talk to. German buyers look for that context in editorial content. A presence in a German-language specialist publication alongside your portal listing closes exactly that gap.

4. Print where German holidaymakers are

Some of those twelve million German holidaymakers spend their time on the Costa del Sol. While they're here, they aren't browsing portals – they're out and about. Printed material in hotels, restaurants, golf clubs and clinics frequented by German guests and residents reaches them in the first contact window. A QR code on every piece links both windows and turns guesswork into data.

5. A dedicated German-speaking contact

Someone who enquires in German expects a reply in German – ideally with a name and a direct number. Decide who handles German enquiries and how quickly. If nobody on your team speaks German, a German-speaking partner such as a law firm or adviser can take the first stretch.

Where Spanientrends comes in

Spanientrends is ADS Marketing's German-language editorial platform for property on the Costa del Sol – not a property portal. It guides buyers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland from their first search to their buying decision, with market reports, buying guides and a curated selection of projects.

For your agency, that means our editorial team presents your company and your properties in native German, with your own enquiry form and an interview. You also get a place in the printed Spanientrends brochure with a personal QR code, distributed where German holidaymakers and residents spend their time, and a quarterly report on the enquiries we have passed on. Partner content is clearly labelled, and you approve all the facts before anything goes live. No translations, no German-speaking staff required.

Frequently asked questions

What share of foreign buyers in Spain are German?

In Q2 2026, Germans accounted for 6.11% of home purchases by foreigners, third behind British and Dutch buyers. Overall, 15.98% of home purchases in Spain were made by foreigners; in the province of Málaga, 37.01% (Colegio de Registradores).

Do German buyers apply for Spanish mortgages more than other nationalities?

At idealista/hipotecas, 15.6% of non-resident mortgage requests in Q2 2026 came from Germany, ahead of the UK (10.6%) and Switzerland (9.4%). These are requests, not completed mortgages.

Is an English website enough for buyers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland?

For first contact, often not. In a CSA Research study, 40% of respondents said they never buy from websites in another language. At the very least, your property brochure, landing page and enquiry form should be in German.

How much does a presence on Spanientrends cost?

2027 introductory prices are €300 per month for estate agencies, €100 per month plus €100 per project for developers and master brokers, and €200 per month for experts and service providers, plus VAT, with a minimum term of 6 months. Full details are in the Media Pack.

In closing

German buyers aren't hard to reach. They just start early and want to know everything. Give them clear answers in their own language at that stage, and you'll be on their shortlist before they make the first call.

Prefer to stay informed first? Subscribe to our newsletter below: marketing news from and for the Costa del Sol property sector.

Sources

• Colegio de Registradores — Estadística Registral Inmobiliaria, Q2 2026
• idealista/hipotecas — foreign mortgage requests, Q2 2026
• INE — FRONTUR, December and full year 2025
• CSA Research — Can’t Read, Won’t Buy, 2020

British estate agents have long understood print. The glossy brochure, the property pages in the local paper, the window display on the high street – all of it said something about the agency, not just the houses. On the Costa del Sol, most of that has moved to the portals. Something has been lost along the way.

Picture an owner in Mijas inviting three agencies to value her villa. All three have portal listings, a tidy Instagram feed and a decent website. The valuations are close, the fees are close. As she shows them out, one of the three leaves a printed magazine on the table – the agency's name on the cover, its properties inside, and pages about the area her house is in.

Which one looks like the expert? Most people answer without hesitating.

There is a difference between paid credibility and earned credibility. An advert buys attention. A publication earns trust – and that is what real estate authority marketing is about. This article looks at why, what the research says, and which levers an agency on the coast can pull.

More competition, less difference

Málaga province is one of the most international property markets in Spain. In the second quarter of 2026, 37.01% of all home purchases were made by foreign buyers – second only to Alicante. For agencies, that means demanding clients who compare across borders and know what good service looks like in London, Stockholm or Oslo.

At the same time, agencies have never looked more alike. On the portals, every agency sits in the same grid: photos, price, three lines of copy, a logo in the corner. Buyers see properties; the agency behind them disappears. It is not unusual for the same villa to be listed by several agencies at once, sometimes with identical photos.

Advertising claims, publishing proves

How people judge a provider's competence before hiring them has been studied closely, mainly in business-to-business buying. Every year, Edelman and LinkedIn survey decision-makers, and the findings are clear:

• 73% say a company's published expertise is a more trustworthy basis for judging its capabilities than its marketing materials (2024 study, around 3,500 respondents).
• 53% say that if a company produces high-quality content, it matters much less to them how well known it is (2025 study).
• 79% are more likely to back a provider in a selection process if it consistently publishes high-quality content (2025 study).

These figures come from corporate purchasing, not property. The mechanism carries over all the same. An owner choosing an agency to sell her home faces exactly the question a procurement director does – who do I trust with this? – and answers it the same way. She believes what she can check for herself over what she is promised.

What your own magazine signals

A magazine with your name on it is the most tangible form of publishing. It sends four signals an advert cannot.

Judgement. A magazine doesn't show everything; it shows a selection. Curating demonstrates judgement – exactly what an owner looks for in an agency.

Staying power. An edition that comes out regularly proves the agency is here to stay. On a coast where agencies come and go, that counts.

Local knowledge. Pages about your area – how it is changing, what makes it different – are knowledge. An advert can claim it; a magazine demonstrates it.

Presence. The magazine sits in your office, at the valuation, in the hotels, restaurants and golf clubs of your area. People pick it up and leave it on the coffee table. A portal listing is gone with the next scroll.

How print and digital work together in property marketing is covered in more depth in our guide to the real estate magazine in Spain.

Five levers for estate agencies

1. Take the magazine to the valuation

The strongest use of a magazine isn't the display stand – it's the owner's dining table. Bring an edition in which comparable homes are presented editorially, and the owner sees how her own property would be marketed. The magazine becomes a tool for winning instructions, not just a showcase for the stock you already have.

2. Present properties as editorial

Large photographs, one clear sentence on the location, the essential facts. No advert blocks with ten photos and capital letters. A property that looks like an article is read like one – more closely, and for longer.

3. Fill your own pages with knowledge

Your cover and agency pages are what make you the expert. A portrait of your area, a short read on the market, the team with names, faces and languages. These are the pages an owner reads before deciding whom to call.

4. Extend the life of the digital edition

Every printed edition has a digital version. Put it in your email signature, in WhatsApp messages to buyers and in your social posts. QR codes in the magazine lead straight to 360° virtual tours. That way the magazine keeps working where the paper copy isn't. More on virtual magazines.

5. Consistency over size

A one-off prestige edition impresses once. Three editions a year build recognition. A magazine's impact doesn't come from the thickness of one issue but from its regularity.

Why shared production makes it affordable

Publishing a magazine alone is too expensive for most agencies: editorial, design, print and distribution cost more than a normal marketing budget allows. So many go without – and leave expert status to a handful of large firms.

There is another way. With the Agency Magazine, several agencies share production and distribution. Each gets its own cover and its own pages with its properties; the inner section is shared. Depending on the package, your area is exclusive, so no other agency hands out the same magazine on your patch. The concept has run since 2008: more than 60 editions, three a year, with up to 14 participating agencies.

The result: your agency publishes its own magazine for a fraction of the cost of going it alone. And if you would rather have a magazine that is yours alone, we also produce bespoke company magazines, from concept to print.

Conclusion

Portals, social media and a website remain the basic kit of every agency. They make sure you are found. Whether you are seen as the expert is decided elsewhere – wherever you show what you know and what you choose. An agency that publishes is read differently from one that advertises.

The next edition of the Agency Magazine comes out in early December; the editorial deadline is 15 November.

Prefer to stay informed first? Subscribe to our newsletter below: monthly marketing news from and for the Costa del Sol property community.

Sources

• Edelman and LinkedIn — B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report 2024
• Edelman and LinkedIn — B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report 2025
• Colegio de Registradores — Estadística Registral Inmobiliaria, Q2 2026

Picture the buyer your development is waiting for. It is June, they have flown in from Stockholm, London or Amsterdam for a week of viewings, and on their first evening they are sitting in a hotel lounge in Marbella with an hour to spare. Before they open a property portal the next morning, they have already formed a shortlist from what was in front of them that evening.

Whether your development is on that shortlist depends less on how much you spend than on when your marketing is visible. This article is written for developers and for agencies marketing a new development on an exclusive mandate as master broker. If you are marketing a new development for 2027, the calendar matters as much as the budget. It looks at how the sales cycle of a new development on the Costa del Sol actually runs, why it is getting harder in 2026, and how an annual edition such as Ideal Home fits into it.

Fewer sales, a larger share from abroad

Spain's housing market is cooling in volume. According to the Colegio de Registradores' property registry statistics, 167,934 home sales were registered in the second quarter of 2026, 5.7% fewer than in the previous quarter and the second consecutive decline (Colegio de Registradores, 2026). The national statistics office INE, which counts with its own methodology, reaches the same conclusion for the first half of 2026: 2.6% fewer transactions than a year earlier (INE, 2026).

International buyers, meanwhile, remain a steady part of demand. Roughly one in six home purchases in Spain is made by a foreign buyer: 15.98% in the second quarter of 2026 according to the property registrars, and 18.4% in the second half of 2025 according to the notaries (Consejo General del Notariado, 2026). And the international buyer decides differently from a local one: they research from a distance, travel out for viewings and often commit weeks or months later.

More developments in the pipeline

While sales are falling, the number of projects coming through is rising. Spain's architects' associations approved plans for 72,056 new-build homes in the first half of 2026, 21.36% more than a year earlier (CSCAE, 2026). The ministry's own figures, based on site-supervision approvals, point the same way: in the first two months of the year they were already 9.26% above the previous year (idealista/Ministry, 2026).

For your development, that means more competitors chasing the same buyer over the coming years. And that competition runs to a calendar. The industry presents itself in spring and the major trade fairs are in May: SIMA in Madrid ran from 20 to 23 May 2026 (SIMA, 2026). Ideal Home has been published every May since 2012, and that is where we have learned the rhythm in which developments on the Costa del Sol come to market: launch in spring, viewing trips through summer and autumn, reservations until the end of the year.

Marketing a new development: five ways to align with the cycle

1. Plan by season, not by budget month

Work backwards: when does your development need to be visible if the first buyers arrive in early summer? An edition that comes out in May, stays in circulation for eight months and remains available online for twelve covers launch, viewing season and decision phase with a single booking. A pay-per-click campaign would have to be funded again every month to cover the same period.

2. Present the development in an editorial setting

The annual Ideal Home edition is a special issue on new developments and construction. Alongside the developments sit articles from lawyers, builders and consultants. Your development appears in a context the buyer trusts while researching, rather than as one listing among hundreds. Formats, dates and terms are set out in the Ideal Home media pack.

3. Be where the buyer spends their time

An international buyer on a viewing trip stays in a hotel, plays golf, eats out and spends the afternoon at a beach club. That is where the print edition is: luxury hotels, golf clubs, beach clubs, restaurants, tourist offices and estate agencies along the Costa del Sol. They read it when they have time and are already here, at exactly the stage when interest turns into a viewing.

4. Connect print and online, and make it measurable

Print is harder to measure than a click. That is no reason to leave it out, but it is a reason to plan tracking from day one. Use a QR code with its own tracking parameter that leads to a project page in the reader's language, and tag enquiries in your CRM by source and channel. After six months you will know which enquiries came through the magazine.

5. Developer and master broker plan together

Under an exclusive sales mandate, magazine presence belongs in the marketing agreement, not in a follow-up email. Settle four points at the outset: who books and pays, who supplies renders and construction progress, whose contact details appear on the page and where the QR code leads. Agree it at project launch and you book in good time. Leave it and you end up negotiating in April with the deadline bearing down.

What an annual edition does not replace

An annual edition is not a substitute for portals, a website or performance campaigns. It does not replace the project website where the buyer checks floor plans and prices, and it does not produce enquiries at the push of a button. If you need extra enquiries at short notice in June, a well-targeted digital campaign will deliver them faster.

Its strength lies elsewhere: it is the constant in the mix. Portals and ads run while the budget lasts and then stop. The print edition stays in circulation, the online edition stays available, and the development sits in a setting the buyer reads as information rather than advertising. That is why it works best as a base on which to layer short digital campaigns, for example at launch and in the weeks before the peak viewing months.

The timetable to the May 2027 edition

1. Now: decide which developments will launch in spring 2027 and write magazine presence into the agreement with your master broker.
2. Secure the visuals: renders, photography, video and drone footage, and a construction timelapse that documents progress. What this costs is broken down here.
3. Choose the format: single page, double-page spread or an editorial project feature if the development needs explaining.
4. Meet the deadlines: book at least four weeks and deliver artwork three weeks before publication.
5. Review: after six months, analyse enquiries by source, language and channel, and plan 2028 accordingly.

Why a magazine reaches international buyers differently from digital advertising is covered in a separate article: Why a Real Estate Magazine in Spain Beats Digital Ads for International Buyers.

Conclusion

A new development is not sold in a campaign week but over a season. The fewer transactions the market records and the more projects come through behind yours, the more it matters to stay visible for that whole season, and to be visible where the international buyer is when they make up their mind on the ground.

An annual edition that comes out as the season starts, stays in circulation for eight months and online for twelve does exactly that, with a single booking you plan once.

Sources

• Colegio de Registradores — Property registry statistics, Q2 2026 (05/08/2026)
• INE — Home sales, first half of 2026, via El Diario de Madrid (10/08/2026)
• Consejo General del Notariado — Home purchases by foreigners, second half of 2025 (09/04/2026)
• CSCAE — New-build approvals, first half of 2026
• idealista — New-build approvals January–February 2026, ministry data (06/05/2026)
• SIMA — Madrid International Real Estate Fair 2026