The Spanish government plans to abolish "golden visas" for wealthy foreigners purchasing real estate in Spain.

According to information from Tuesday, April 9, 2024, Spain is making the decision to end the so-called "golden visa" program for foreign citizens purchasing real estate. This initiative aims to increase the availability of housing in the country. The Prime MinisterPedro SánchezHe announced plans to cancel the program that provided residence permits to foreigners investing at least 500,000 euros in the real estate market. This decision will allow Spain to take a step towards other EU countries that have already abandoned similar programs. "We will take the necessary measures to ensure that housing is a right, not just an object of speculation," Sánchez emphasized.

At the cabinet meeting held on April 9, a proposal will be considered to amend the law regulating the issuance of golden visas. The Prime Minister noted that this law was adopted by the People's Party of Spain in 2013 and allowed for the issuance of residence visas on the condition of investing in real estate in the country. According to the government, about 94% of investor visas are related to transactions in the real estate market, amounting to approximately 10,000 permits. The main cities where there is high demand for such visas areBarcelona,Madrid,Málaga,Alicante,PalmandValencia, which are also the least affluent areas in terms of housing.

Government authorities clarified that the priority is to "ensure access to affordable housing to respond to citizens' requests," and also added that no one should spend more than 30% of their income to have "decent, adequate, and quality housing." The idea of abolishing the golden visa has been discussed for over a year since the Prime Minister initially voiced this intention among other campaign promises. In May of last year, the Ministry of Social Welfare confirmed that the abolition is "a hypothesis proposed to us by some groups, and we are going to study it." This statement was made in the context of increased tension in the housing market, which has become central to the parties' election strategies.

Proposal being put forward“More Country-Equo”In February of last year, it was a consequence of a 7% increase in prices for free housing in 2022.

According to the information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 2022, the Spanish government issued only 451 golden visas to foreigners who invested in real estate. This number is nearly 50% lower compared to the previous year and accounts for just 0.7% of the total purchases made by non-residents. These visas are exclusively granted to investors who are not residents of the European Union, and based on notary statistics, last year this category of citizens completed 19,225 transactions. In other words, the number of golden visas issued indicates that only 2% of investors took advantage of this opportunity, which provides access to a residence permit when purchasing property in Spain.

At the same time, the decrease in the number of applications last year was largely due to the government's decision to cancel the issuance of visas for Russian investors who purchased more than 1,000 homes in the country the previous year, following the start of the conflict in Ukraine. However, overall data shows that this purchasing channel remains underutilized compared to its potential beneficiaries. If we look at the moment the program was launched, the number of golden visas issued barely exceeds 5,400.