Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Sunday that his government is proposing to ban people from outside the EU bloc from buying housing in Spain, as part of his drive to ease an affordable-homes crisis.
His proposal is to prevent people from outside the EU from buying homes in Spain unless they currently have legal residential status in the country.
The comments followed the socialist leader’s proposal last week to slap a tax of up to 100% on such property deals in a country struggling with strong demand and soaring prices. ALSO READ: Sánchez announces new housing measures, including limiting non-residents from buying property.
‘We are going to propose to ban non-EU foreigners from buying houses in our country, in cases where neither they nor their families reside here and they are just speculating with those homes,’ Sánchez told a gathering of his socialist (PSOE) party in the Extremadura region.
Sánchez said the plan for a 100% tax was inspired by similar schemes in Denmark and Canada. The North American country bans non-resident foreigners from buying homes in a bid to make the market more affordable, a measure introduced in 2023 and extended to 1 January 2027. In Denmark, foreigners can buy property if they have been living there for at least five years and have a special permit, though the conditions are eased for EU nationals.
Announcing a list of proposed measures last week, he vowed to offer more social housing, improve regulation and provide more support to renters.
He blamed the crisis on measures passed by the right-wing People’s Party (PP) when it was in government during the financial crisis that erupted in 2008.
Announcing his 12-point programme to alleviate the crisis last Monday, Sánchez said non-residents from outside the European Union bought around 27,000 houses and apartments in Spain in 2023.
According to real estate registry data, Britons led the way for foreign property buyers in 2023 with 9.5% of the total transactions by non-Spaniards.
Sánchez has also announced higher taxes and tighter regulation for tourist apartments, often blamed for reducing the availability of residential properties and causing rents to spike.
The PP opposition party called the 100% tax ‘xenophobic’. Sánchez is ‘selling’ the limitation on the purchase of flats to foreigners ‘as if it were a panacea, when it is a smokescreen with no real effect’, the PP said in a statement.
A total of 638,552 property deals were sealed in 2023, of which foreigners — including EU nationals — carried out slightly more than 19%, according to housing ministry figures.
The share reached 31.5% and 28.6% respectively in the Balearic and Canary Islands, two tourism hotspots, and 29.2% in the eastern Valencia region. But the rate was just 6.3% in the Madrid region.
Last year, Spain announced that it was scrapping its Golden Visa scheme that allows wealthy people from outside the EU to obtain residency permits by investing more than half a million euros in real estate. Those who already have a golden visa may retain it but no new ones will be issued. ALSO READ: Spanish government to limit short-term rentals and tourist flats to address housing crisis.
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La vivienda tiene que pasar de ser un problema a ser una solución.
Es un derecho, tu derecho, porque lo dice la Constitución.#EspañaAdelantaPorLaIzquierda pic.twitter.com/D4lIdC2dYF
— PSOE (@PSOE) January 13, 2025
Nos ha tocado vivir un momento definitorio. Para Extremadura, para España y para Europa.
Hoy somos mirados por muchos progresistas fuera de España como la referencia y la inspiración.
No les defraudemos.
Seamos ganadores y ambiciosos. Y defendamos la alegría y el optimismo. pic.twitter.com/YNyHe0PJ3G
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) January 19, 2025
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