The Bank of Spain places Castellón among the provinces with the highest proportion of tourist homes and non-resident foreign properties, at 3.6% of the residential stock, above the national average. The report warns that these alternative uses reduce the availability of housing for permanent residence.
The Bank of Spain has focused on the impact of tourist homes and purchases by non-resident foreigners on the residential market. According to its Annual Report 2025, in the province of Castellón, these two phenomena already account for 3.6% of the housing stock, a percentage that exceeds the national average of 3.3% and places the province among the territories with the highest incidence of these alternative uses, although still far behind Alicante (14.5%) or Málaga (14.1%).
Over 13,000 tourist homes and 5.6% of purchases by foreigners
The report reveals that Castellón currently has more than 13,000 tourist homes registered with the Generalitat, a figure that continues to grow despite recent regulatory measures. The supply is concentrated in coastal municipalities such as Orpesa and Peñíscola, but is already extending to 115 of the 135 municipalities in the province.
In parallel, purchases of homes by non-resident foreigners accounted for 5.6% of all property transactions recorded in the province during 2025. Although this percentage is lower than that of Alicante or Málaga, it represents an increase of 3.7 percentage points compared to 2007, reflecting the growing interest of international buyers in the Castellón real estate market.
The Bank of Spain insists that these alternative uses do not solely explain the difficulties in accessing housing, as the root of the problem lies in the limited capacity to build new homes where demand is increasing.
A deficit of 16,000 homes and insufficient construction
The main problem of the residential market in Castellón, according to the regulator, is the inability of supply to meet the growth in demand. Various studies estimate that the accumulated deficit since 2021 is around 16,000 homes, as a result of several years in which the creation of new homes has advanced far beyond the pace of construction.
Sector indicators confirm this gap. During 2025, 1,737 new construction permits were granted, while the start of free homes fell by 38.8% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period the previous year. This is compounded by the absence of new protected housing developments and a construction pace that barely reaches one home for every seven new households, far from the market's needs.
The Bank of Spain identifies the same restrictions that developers complain about: a shortage of developable land, slow urban planning processes, a lack of skilled labour, rising construction costs, and a loss of the sector's capacity to respond quickly to increasing demand.
Additional pressure on purchase and rental prices
In this scenario of structural scarcity, the regulator believes that the increase in homes intended for non-residential uses adds pressure to the market. According to the report, tourist homes and properties owned by non-resident foreigners total nearly 900,000 properties in Spain, equivalent to 3.3% of the national stock.
Although they generate economic activity, the agency warns that they also reduce the number of homes available for permanent residence in those markets where supply is already insufficient, creating new pressures on both purchase and rental prices. In Castellón, the sum of both uses reaches that 3.6% of the residential stock, a proportion that, while not among the highest, adds to an already significant supply deficit.
For readers interested in the real estate market, the data from the Bank of Spain confirms that the pressure on housing in Castellón is not solely a matter of tourism or foreign buyers, but primarily of new supply that fails to cover even a fraction of the demand. Until the pace of construction increases, access to housing will remain the main challenge for the provincial residential market.
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