Where are the buyers?

PUBLISHED ON

Mayo 15, 2026

CATEGORY

Real Estate

I’ve been buying, renovating, and selling luxury homes in Madrid for more than ten years. I’ve closed more than fifty transactions. And I can tell you something that few people in the sector say out loud: selling today is not the same as selling five years ago.

Not because there are no buyers. There are. They are still coming, still closing deals, still choosing Madrid. But they have changed where they are, and anyone who has not understood that is still waiting for the phone to ring.

Before, you would list a property on Idealista and within three months you had a buyer. The portal was the market. Today, the portal is still necessary, but it is no longer enough. And in the segment I work in — homes between two and four million euros in Almagro, Salamanca, and Recoletos — it is simply not the channel that closes deals. Not because the product is not extraordinary, but because the extraordinary buyer does not come from there.

The high-net-worth buyer is not browsing property portals at eleven o’clock at night looking for their next investment. They arrive through another route. Through someone they trust who says, “Talk to this person.” Through their lawyer, their private banker, or a friend who has already bought here and speaks about Madrid as if it were a secret worth sharing with their own circle. The chain of trust matters more than the algorithm. It has always been that way in luxury, but now it is more evident than ever.

The major international agencies have the logo, the shop window, and the branding. For years, they have been telling us that they have access to the global buyer. And it is true that they have a presence in many markets. But the high-net-worth Latin American buyer — who remains one of the most active drivers of this segment in Madrid — does not arrive through their institutional networks. They arrive through their community. Through someone who has already gone through the process, who has already trusted, who has already bought. A Latin American settled in Madrid who calls their business partner and tells them that life is good here, that the market is serious, and that they know someone who knows what they are doing. No marketing campaign can generate that. Years of work can.

And this is where I want to make a reflection that I believe is important, aimed both at those of us who buy and develop projects and at the agencies and personal shoppers who accompany us in this market.

The client has changed. They have not disappeared; they have evolved. They are more demanding, more informed, more selective. They compare more before deciding. They take longer to commit. They arrive through channels that did not exist five years ago or that they did not use then. And when they arrive, they expect a level of service, support, and knowledge that goes far beyond showing them a beautiful apartment.

This change is not a problem. It is a shift in the cycle. And cycles are not reversed; they are understood and embraced. Our responsibility, as everyone who works in this field, is to adapt to this new buyer. To explore other ways of reaching them. To build different alliances from the ones that worked before. Those who understand this first will have an advantage. Those who wait for the market to go back to what it was will be waiting for a very long time.

And this applies to everyone who forms part of this chain. Because selling a two-, three-, or four-million-euro home in Madrid in 2025 is not the same as selling one ten years ago. This market demands real specialization. It requires knowing the product in depth, knowing the buyer, understanding their motivations, and speaking their language — sometimes literally, sometimes culturally. The time when it was enough to open a door and walk someone through a living room is over.

I do not say this as criticism. I say it as a fact. The market has raised its level of demand, and that is good for everyone: for the buyer, who receives a better service, and for those of us who truly put in the work, because specialization becomes a real competitive advantage. In this segment, those who put in the work, understand the cycle, and adapt to it, win. And those who do not, earn less and close fewer deals. It is that simple.

Deals are still being closed. You just have to know where to look and who to walk with.