Amid the backdrop of the war in Ukraine but also growing household wealth, Poles are buying properties in Spain in record numbers.

Poles in 2023 bought the highest numbers of properties in Spain on record, beating the old record from the year before in 2022, according to figures from Polish outlet Bizblog.

Poles bought 3,118 properties in Spain in 2023, and their share in the Spanish property market is growing fast.  As recently as 2019 it was 1.6 percent of property purchases by foreigners, but by 2023 that number had risen to 3.6 percent.

In areas such as Marina Baixa and Alta in the Costa Blanca, Polish buyers are investing in new builds more than Spaniards. 

Poles tend to pay cash rather than taking out a mortgage when they buy property in Spain, and are more likely to choose flats (65 percent of total transactions) compared to houses or villas (35 percent).

Even though Polish buyers are still not among the main foreign population groups who snapped up the most Spanish homes in 2023 (Brits, Germans and French), their increasing presence is noticeable.

READ MORE: Foreigners buy up homes in Spain in record numbers

Agnes Marciniak-Kostrzewa, a property estate based on the Costa del Sol, told CNN that the surge interest has mirrored concerns in Poland about the ongoing war in Ukraine.

“I experienced two waves of rapidly growing interest in buying properties. The first was in February 2022, immediately after the outbreak of the war. The second has been since February 2024,” Marciniak-Kostrzewa said, referencing the period when Russia picked up its offensive and began making territorial gains again.

More recently, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments on Russia caused more Polish nationals to consider having a second home abroad. “After Trump’s statement and after Tusk’s interview, we got calls – I don’t even know how many – with people asking if they can come within three days and buy the property, and how long the whole procedure takes to get the keys,” Marciniak-Kostrzewa said.

But it’s not just fear pushing this trend, it’s also growing spending power.

This comes following news that Poland overtook Spain in terms of average household wealth. The wealth index, referred to as ‘actual individual consumption’ (AIC), combines goods and services consumed per household, as well as services provided by the government.

According to Eurostat, AIC is a better measure of household consumer wealth than GDP per capita, which gives a broad stroke view of the overall economic health of a country rather than individual households.

Over the past three decades, Poland has experienced an “economic marvel” which has seen its GDP increase tenfold nominally, sixfold when corrected for the cost of living.

That is to say, decades after the fall of communism Poles are getting richer and richer and looking abroad to buy property abroad as a back up plan should, in the unlikely event it does happen, the war in Ukraine spills over into Poland.

52,882 Poles are registered as living in Spain as of 2022, according to latest population data from Spain national stats body (INE).

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