This Tuesday, the Government begins the procedures to eliminate golden visas, which have benefited 9,400 foreigners who have invested in the purchase of real estate for a minimum amount of 500,000 euros free of charge and who have not been required to establish their residence. tax in Spain. The president, Pedro Sánchez, announced that the Council of Ministers will study today the report prepared by the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, to end this measure, approved by the Government of Mariano Rajoy in 2013 and designed to attract foreign investors and talent. .
In these eleven years, a total of 10,000 non-EU citizens have benefited from the “residency program for investors and entrepreneurs” through its different modalities, Sánchez explained this Monday. Betting on housing has been the priority reason, with the aforementioned 9,400 concessions. But not the only one. It has also been possible to obtain the golden visa by investing in financial assets (two million in public debt, one million in shares of Spanish companies, one million in investment funds or one million in deposits). These modalities, which only represent 600 permits, will not disappear, explained the Executive.
The latest public information on the details of visa concessions to investors was offered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Transparency International. It states that, as of September 2023 and, therefore, during the last decade, Spain granted 2,700 residence authorizations to investors from China for investing more than 500,000 euros in housing, 1,110 to citizens of Russia, 200 to people legal entities from Iran, 170 to Americans and 165 to UK taxpayers. In the ranking there are also concessions to investors from Egypt, Ukraine, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, although with a merely testimonial value.
“We are going to take the necessary measures to guarantee that housing is a right and not a mere speculative business,” said Pedro Sánchez this Monday. “The Government's priority in this legislature is to guarantee access to affordable housing, so that no citizen has to allocate more than 30% of their income to have a decent, adequate and quality home. To do this, we are prioritizing the social function of housing,” he added.
According to the Government, cities such as Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga, Alicante, Palma and Valencia are the ones that register the greatest demand from foreign investors who have been granted a golden visa and, at the same time, are positioned as the towns with more areas of tension in prices.
In recent months, various reports from the real estate sector have reported that in locations such as those mentioned, the rise in housing prices coincides with a growing tendency to pay for them in cash, as well as with an increase in foreign buyers. In the case of Barcelona, Americans stand out as the buyers of the most luxury homes. According to a report from the real estate agency Engel
Real estate experts point out that the elimination of the golden visa is insufficient to address the housing problem in Spain. The president of the Association of Developers and Builders of Spain, Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado, stated that “it is an issue that will not impact the real estate sector.” He provided this information: “Of the more than 87,000 homes that were sold in 2022 to foreigners, visas only represented 0.5%.” Ferran Font, director of studies at Pisos.com, holds the same opinion. Jesús Manuel Martínez Caja, from the Amadei employers' association, for his part, requested a review of the regulations “to provide it with greater transparency and security” regarding acquisitions by foreign investors.
