The Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez proposed a national property database to make real sold property prices publicly accessible: an essential move to improve market transparency, boost buyer confidence, and modernise the Spanish real estate sector. Though there is a simple way to provide more accurate data using the existing systems.
Amid a notoriously unregulated and speculative market, Pedro Sanchez’ Spanish Government proposed greater real estate transparency through a national database of property sold prices. The recently released Notarial Portal makes average prices and transaction numbers at municipal level easily accessible to the public, but doesn’t provide statistics by sub-area or property type. If the Spanish government supported Sanchez’s proposal, the reform could redefine how buyers, sellers, and professionals engage with the Spanish property market.
On 4 June 2025, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote to regional government officials proposing a series of national housing policy reforms under the Plan Estatal de Vivienda 2026-2030. Among the most consequential for the real estate sector is his proposal to create a publicly accessible, centralised property price database: a tool that would finally provide transparent access to real historical sales prices across Spain.
In his letter to regional governments, Sánchez called for an end to the “monopoly of information” held by private entities, advocating instead for a “reliable public database” including rental and sale price data. This would allow government agencies, researchers, and citizens to understand real estate market trends better and negotiate more effectively when buying or selling property.
Sánchez emphasised that Spain’s lack of property market price transparency is hampering effective housing policy and market confidence. He explicitly highlighted the need for all levels of government – regional and national – to collaborate to make this data available online and accessible to the public. The implementation from government level would be passing a bill to change regulations that govern the information gathered by private notaries, requiring agreement from competing national parties, which they have unfortunately not supported.
Despite this, the Notariado launched its Spanish Notarial Property Statistics Portal on 23 October 2025, a website that publishes up-to-date data of average prices, percentage annual increase, total sales, average buyer age and top buyer nationalities over 12 year period at a municipal, regional, state and national level. The information has been available since 2012 through the Notarial Statistical Information Center, but the new portal makes the information easily accessible and digestible for the broader public. This portal is a very welcome step towards accessible property sold data, but still lacks localised details that are essential to understand real property values.
For those looking at how to access property data in Spain, currently, there is very little reliable data on specific sales prices. The information is collected by the private notary, who shares information with Notary and Land Registry office, who release quarterly global data about total number of sales registered, and percentages of buyers by origin, and in the newly established Portal Estatistico del Notariado.
Detailed information about each transaction is shared with Catastro, which can release macro-data to certain institutions and administrations only. Owners of specific properties can request more detailed information about the current cadastral value, but this is not an indication of the history of sales, or the sale or market price.
As such, real estate market data in Spain is fragmented across multiple institutions:
In this context, some estate agents and other bodies create private databases of property sold prices in specific areas and criteria. However, these databases aren’t publicly available or reliable, and lack transparency or regulation, so can not be used to gather true market values.
The result? You cannot trust the data when looking for actual market values and sold prices in Spain.
Spain’s lack of property transaction transparency results in a major gap for everyone, from international investors to local homeowners. While the publically available information shares municipal town level data about average prices, changes, number of transaction and buyer demographics, it lacks specific local level details, or broken down by property type (currently it only shows apartment and home categories).
The information should be broken down at least by key sub-areas within each local area, and then different property types within that area including villas, townhouses or semi detached, apartments, penthouses, rustic homes, rustic land, industrial land, and commercial space, for example. This information would give real estate professionals, buyers and sellers a clearer picture of property values and trends, by gathering and sharing only two more variables for each transaction. For governments and professionals wanting to understand market dynamics, it could also share data about average floor areas, both buyers and sellers age, demographic, and whether it is a primary, secondary or investment residence: however this extra information is not essential for understanding market value, as it is for analysing trends and their implications.
Without more specific information about sold prices by sub-area and property type, or verified public record of what homes actually sold for, the market operates primarily on estimates and assumptions. Spokespeople from around the real estate industry have been calling for improved property data transparency and access to real sale prices for years, including Idealista spokesperson Francisco Iñareta, stating “We would love to include this data and make it available to all users, offering them all the information available so they can make their decisions freely.”
The absence of official price data contributes to unrealistic valuations, speculative pricing, and inconsistent buyer expectations, particularly in sought-after areas like Marbella, Benahavís, Madrid and Barcelona, where asking prices are sometimes based on hype and speculation.
The proposal to publish real estate data in Spain, specifically more detailed information on historical sold prices, would mark a transformative shift in the market. For the first time, buyers, sellers and professionals would have access to reliable, verified information when evaluating a property’s worth.
A national database of sold Spanish property prices would dramatically improve the confidence of buyers, sellers, and professionals alike. It would allow:
For buyers, especially international one, it would reduce perceived risk and build confidence in the Spanish real estate market. For sellers, it would create more realistic pricing strategies. And for the broader industry, it would mark a long-awaited shift toward professionalism and credibility.
In competitive markets like Marbella, Benahavís & Estepona properties, where luxury real estate pricing can often be speculative and inconsistent, this reform could make transactions smoother, valuations more accurate, and the market more balanced.
It is widely acknowledged that a property price database of sold prices in Spain would increase the confidence of international buyers considering purchasing luxury property in Marbella. Experts like Martin Dell, co-founder of Kyero.com, confirm that international buyers “cite the current lack of price transparency as one of the most frustrating aspects of buying property in Spain.”
This is particularly true for international buyers from more transparent property markets like Sweden, Germany, or the United States who look for real sales history when investing.
In the words of the President of the Leading Property Agents of Spain (LPA), Álvaro Botella, “Publishing actual sales prices, as long as data accuracy and GDPR compliance are ensured, would not only build trust among international buyers but also elevate the professionalism of our sector.” The new system would help investors buy properties with confidence in Spain.
Despite the stability of prime property markets like Marbella and Benahavís, the strong presence of international buyers suggests that increased property price transparency is expected to be highly beneficial to the market. These areas attract international buyers seeking second homes, investment properties, or permanent residences, and the current lack of verified property price data can sometimes undermine buyer confidence.
One of the primary objections to making sold prices public in Spain has been concerns about privacy, with many assuming that gathering more data means data about what individual properties sold for, and therefore what the owners paid. However, gathering more specific local data, such as average prices and transaction numbers in any given period by sub-area and specific property type gives the market essential data without revealing specific sold prices of individual properties. In rural areas where transaction numbers are lower, specific price data could be shared on a more regional level to avoid the privacy concerns of locals determining what might be considered sensitive information.
We can also look overseas to discover models of advanced property markets that balance privacy with market data in building accessible databases. In the United States, property transaction records are generally public. County clerk offices register sold prices, and licensed agents access detailed information via the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which includes sales data, market insights and historical price trends. Public platforms like Zillow and Realtor offer generalised data while maintaining personal privacy.
This system works really well and gives agents accurate information to have confidence in representing their clients well, and their clients can have confidence in real property values based on historical data. Crucially, access to these detailed systems is limited to licensed professionals. This point reinforces the need for agent accreditation and industry regulation in Spain, where currently, anyone can operate as a real estate agent without formal training.
Importantly, in most countries where transaction data is public, agents are licensed professionals bound by ethics and accountability who learn the details of the system and how to function professionally within the legal context of the real estate market.
In contrast, Spain has no national licensing system for real estate agents, which means that in most autonomous communities (excluding Catalonia and Valencia), anyone can operate in the field without formal training or oversight. Bodies such as API (Agente de la Propiedad Inmobiliaria), GIPE (Gestor Intermediario de Promociones y Edificaciones) and Leading Agents of Spain (LPA) offer optional courses and training to attempt to help professionalise the market, but without any legal requirements.
For a more complex public property database in Spain to be successful, introducing a regulatory framework for agent accreditation or licensing would help ensure that data is used responsibly, protecting both consumers and the system’s integrity.
The architecture for creating a public database system already exists. Spain’s tripartite structure of Notaries, the Land Registry, and Catastro already as a process to collect the data. What’s needed is a more substantial and unified regulatory framework and digital infrastructure that:
The improved system could aggregate sales data by sub-area, property type and/or size to give insights into market trends and valuation benchmarks. Going deeper, an even more detailed system could track individual properties by address, providing price history over time, with the detailed information only available by controlled access for professionals (lawyers, agents, valuers) based on licensing, with non licensed public access to anonymised, aggregated data by area and property type. Industry veteran Campbell Ferguson of Survey Spain SL commented, “Having a public record to refer to would make life so much easier—if it’s accurate and truly accessible.”
While the recently launched public notary portal makes the currently gathered information more accessible, it still lacks the details required to make detailed fact-based property valuations and comparisons. If implemented, Pedro Sanchez’s proposed reform could transform how we all approach buying and selling property in Spain. With real estate transparency finally made a priority, Spain would align itself with other EU countries already offering open access to transaction data.
Although Sanchez’s proposal was rejected by shadowing political parties, introducing a public, centralised database of actual property sale prices in Spain would represent a foundational shift in the Spanish property market. It would benefit buyers and sellers and improve the work of estate agents, developers, valuers, and policymakers. Buyers would no longer be left in the dark, sellers would be motivated to price realistically, and agents could provide grounded, data-driven advice.
As Spain looks to modernise its housing sector, real estate data transparency is not just a technical improvement. Spain has the tools and Prime Minister support, all it needs now is the bipartisan support and will to act.
In this context, working with experienced reliable real estate agents is essential for making sure you make wise property decisions, based on local data knowledge and insights. Don’t hesitate to get in contact if you’d like to discuss your property’s value or explore your next investment move in Marbella, Benahavís, Estepona or the Costa del Sol.
Originally published 25 June. Updated 21 November 2025.
Melinda Rendina Content Writer & Marketing Creator
Melinda is an experienced writer specialising in real estate, urban planning, lifestyle, architecture and design. A seasoned Marbella resident, she holds an Undergraduate Degree in Social Science with Honours in Politics, and a Masters degree in Urban Planning.
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