The safest countries to invest in housing, and why Spain has long been one

The countries at the top of the peace rankings are not, for that reason, the countries where a foreigner can buy a home and be protected. Iceland is the most peaceful country in the world and it is not a second-home market. Canada, Australia and New Zealand protect property very well and, at the same time, stop or limit a non-resident who wants to buy the home they actually want. Spain is not number one in any 2025 ranking. For four decades it has been something else: a European Union, euro and NATO state, with a land registry that protects a good-faith buyer who registers the title, where a foreigner buys an ordinary home under the same civil rules as a Spaniard. That combination, not a single rank, is what has kept it a safe destination.

This is not a buy recommendation or investment advice. It describes the legal framework and the public indices as of October 2026, and it separates what each source actually measures.

“Safe” means three different things

They should be kept apart. Rankings mix them, and a headline keeps the one that suits it.

• Safety of title. The home is registered in your name and a court will respect that registration. Rule of law and a reliable registry decide this.
• Personal safety. Violence is low. Homicide rates and the Global Peace Index measure this, not the price per square metre.
• Safety of price. The home does not lose a large part of its value. No serious country can promise that. Spain cannot either. The cycle that began in 2008 proved it.

The map for 2025 and 2026

The table puts three sources side by side that do not measure the same thing. The 2025 Global Peace Index from the Institute for Economics & Peace ranks 163 countries: rank 1 is the most peaceful. The 2025 International Property Rights Index ranks 126 countries on the legal framework and the protection of property. The foreign-buyer column comes from each country’s law, not from a ranking. “Open” means there is no national ban or permit for a non-resident buying an ordinary urban home. Protected land, the coast or a farm can still have their own rules.

France’s peace-index rank does not describe the registry or the street. That index penalises militarisation and the impact of terrorism. On property rights France is 12th, and on real-estate transparency it is 2nd in the world. The United Kingdom is not in the head table of the IPRI in a way that assigns it a rank without the full report; on real-estate transparency it is number 1.

On the property-rights index, the 2025 leaders are Luxembourg (8.237), Australia (8.037) and Switzerland (8.008). The United States is 10th (7.655). Spain scores 7.144 and ranks 22nd of 126. The physical-property sub-index, the one that looks at housing rather than patents, rises on the index’s own country page to 8.283 and to 8th in the world on that component.

Market transparency is not the same as peace

For someone about to sign a purchase, the useful index is the 2024 Global Real Estate Transparency Index from JLL and LaSalle. It covers 89 countries and 151 cities with 256 indicators: market data, governance of listed vehicles, the legal framework, the transaction process and sustainability. Europe is the most transparent region.

The “highly transparent” group is led by the United Kingdom (1), France (2), the United States (3), Australia (4), Canada (5), the Netherlands (6), New Zealand (7), Ireland (8), Sweden (9) and Germany (10). Japan, Belgium and, for the first time in that group, Singapore are in it as well. The order is set out in JLL’s German newsroom note.

Spain ranks 18th in the world, the same place as in 2022, and among the ten most transparent markets in Europe. JLL places it in the “Transparent” tier, not the top one. It is a market in which a professional investor can find data, a notarial deed and a registry. It is not the market with the finest statistical series in the world.

The small print on the countries that rank first

Several of the best-ranked countries close the door that Spain leaves open.

• Switzerland. The Federal Act on the Acquisition of Immovable Property by Foreign Non-Residents, the Lex Koller, requires cantonal authorisation. A holiday home is only possible in designated tourist areas and within a quota. Owning the home does not give a residence permit.
• Denmark. Anyone who is not domiciled in the country, or has not lived there for at least five years, needs permission from the Department of Civil Affairs to buy. The official guide says so, and it applies to a main home and to a holiday home.
• Canada. The ban on purchases by non-Canadians, in force since 1 January 2023, was extended to 1 January 2027. The Department of Finance announced it. It covers homes of up to three units in urban areas. A building of four or more units, and land outside those areas, follows a different regime.
• Australia. From 1 April 2025 until 31 March 2027, a foreign investor cannot buy an established home, apart from defined exceptions. The Australian Treasury announced it. New homes and land to build on follow another path, with approval.
• New Zealand. Someone from overseas, as a rule, cannot buy residential land. There is a different route for Australians and Singaporeans, and another, with consent, for a residence-visa holder buying one home to live in.
• Singapore. Buying is allowed. Since 27 April 2023 the general rule for a foreigner is an Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty of 60%, on top of ordinary stamp duty. IRAS’s own example, on a home worth 2 million Singapore dollars, comes to 1.2 million in that surcharge alone.

Why Spain has been on that list for decades

Spain’s safety as a place to buy does not start with the 2025 ranking. It starts when the country writes down that private property does not depend on the government of the day, and when it opens that rule to people who are not Spanish.

• 1978. Article 33 of the Constitution recognises private property and inheritance. No one may be deprived of their property except for public use or social interest, with compensation and according to the law.
• 1982 and 1986. Spain joins NATO and, on 1 January 1986, the European Communities. From then on the owner’s political framework is that of a member state, not of a peripheral market with no institutional anchor.
• 1999. The euro. Someone who earns and saves in euros has no currency risk between their country and the house. That does not exist in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, Australia or Singapore.
• The registry. Article 34 of the Mortgage Law protects a third party who, in good faith and for value, registers a right acquired from the person who appeared in the Registry as entitled to transfer it. Even if the transferor’s right is later annulled for a reason that was not in the Registry, the third party’s registration stands. The notary’s deed is not enough: publicity comes from registration.
• The foreigner. Article 27 of the Civil Code says foreigners enjoy the same civil rights as Spaniards, except where special laws or treaties provide otherwise. Buying an ordinary home is not one of those exceptions. Residence or a visa is not required in order to own.

Residence by investment, the so-called golden visa, for purchases of at least €500,000, was abolished by Organic Law 1/2025. Since 3 April 2025 there are no new applications. Closing that visa did not close purchases. An EU citizen did not need it, and title never depended on it. Owning the home still does not, by itself, give a right to reside.

Where Spain stands in today’s figures

The World Justice Project places Spain 18th of 31 in the EU, EFTA and North America group. The score fell by 0.6% and the global rank did not move. Inside the index, civil justice is 30th of 143 and order and security is 39th. Spain is in the world’s high group and in the middle of its rich region. It is not Denmark, which leads that index.

The homicide rate, in Eurostat’s crim_hom_soff series, has moved between 0.6 and 0.9 per 100,000 every year since 2008. It is a low and stable series. It is not the lowest in the Union.

Price has been through a full cycle. Title has not.

Anyone who says prices in Spain “always rise” has not read the series. The INE Housing Price Index, in the fourth quarter of 2025, rose 12.9% year on year: 11.2% for new homes and 13.1% for second-hand homes, and 1.8% on the previous quarter. The historical table of the same index shows the other side: annual rates of −11.2% in 2011, −12.8% in 2012 and −7.8% in 2013. Since 2014 the fourth-quarter annual rate has been positive, and 2024 and 2025 are the strongest years of that recovery.

The 2025 Land Registry Statistics Yearbook closes the year at an average price of €2,284 per m² and €214,581 per home, both highs of the registry series, with a 9.5% rise in euros per square metre. The INE index and the registrars’ price do not measure the same moment or the same universe. Both say 2025 was a year of strong increases, after a cycle that already included a long fall.

In that same yearbook, foreigners completed about 97,480 purchases, 13.82% of all home sales. The foreign buyer is not a recent add-on of the latest boom: it is a stable part of demand, above all on the coast. Provinces, nationalities and house type are covered in the foreign-buyer study.

Where Spain is not first

Reading only the 25th place on peace, or only the 12.9% rise, leaves out what a buyer should discount.

• Perceived corruption. In Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index, Spain scores 55 out of 100 and ranks 49th of 182, one point and three places worse than the year before. The international note lists it among Europe’s larger declines since 2012, down 10 points. Portugal is at 56. This is not a violence figure. It is a figure about trust in the public sector, and it is the institutional weak point on this list.
• Civil justice. The World Justice Project’s 30th place describes timelines and predictability, not whether title is valid. A dispute over possession or a community of owners is resolved, and it is not resolved quickly.
• Data transparency. JLL’s 18th place, in the second tier, means the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands or Germany publish finer series. The Spanish registry protects the right. Neighbourhood statistics and yield data are not the most open on the continent.
• The entry price. 2024 and 2025 are expensive years against Spain’s own recent series. Buying because “Spain is safe” does not answer whether that flat, at that price, makes sense.

If you buy and do not reside, safety includes the tax office

Owning without being a tax resident is not tax-free. Every year you file Modelo 210, non-resident income tax:

• Empty home. The base of imputed income is 1.1% or 2% of the cadastral value, depending on when it was revised. The rate is 19% if you reside in the EU or EEA, and 24% in the rest of the world.
• Rent. The same 19% or 24% on rental income. Someone who resides in the EU or EEA can deduct related expenses. Someone who does not is taxed on the gross income.
• Sale. The buyer withholds 3% and pays it in on Modelo 211. The seller declares the capital gain and claims back any excess, or pays the difference.

If you become a tax resident, the scheme changes: IRPF reaches worldwide income, including a foreign pension. Treaties exist so you do not pay twice. The map by nationality is in the non-resident tax guide. Prices and demand are in the 2026 market review.

How to read the list if you want a second home

If the aim is to buy this year from another country, the short list is not the peace index. It is the euro markets with a working registry and no national purchase permit: Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland. Portugal ranks ahead of Spain on peace (7 against 25) and very close on property rights (23 against 22). France is more transparent. So is Germany. Spain brings something else: four decades with the same door open, a coastal market that already absorbs close to 100,000 foreign purchases a year, and a price cycle that has already run its full course without touching title.

The United Kingdom is the most transparent market and it is open, in a different currency and with a higher entry tax cost for a non-resident. Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore can be excellent for someone who already lives there. For someone buying from abroad, the law puts a permit, a ban or a 60% tax in the way before safety is even discussed.

Bottom line

Spain does not lead the world on peace, on the perception of corruption, or on real-estate transparency. It leads a combination that has sat in the same place for decades: constitutional private property, the euro, a registry with public faith, and a purchase open to non-residents. The price has fallen and risen again. The registered right has not been interrupted. Anyone about to buy should treat those two sentences as different facts, and should have Modelo 210 sorted from the year of the deed. At SpainTaxForm we file it online, in your language.