Houses located along a hillside outside Marbella on the sunny coast, Costa del Sol, Spain.
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Spain is considering imposing a 100% tax on homes purchased by non-EU residents in a bid to tackle a deep-seated housing crisis in the country.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday proposed a package of measures aimed at easing the housing shortage, high rents and rising property prices across the country, with foreign buyers and mass tourism seen as contributing to pressures on housing.
Speaking at a forum on the subject, socialist leader Sánchez said access to housing was one of the main challenges facing Spanish society and that there is a risk of division between communities.
“The West faces a decisive challenge: not to become a society divided into two classes, that of rich owners and that of poor tenants,” he said, stressing that property prices in Europe have increased by 48% over the last decade, almost twice as much. as household income.
“We are facing a serious problem, with enormous social and economic implications, which requires a decisive response from society as a whole, with public institutions on the front line,” he said, according to comments published by the government.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, speaks during the forum “Housing, fifth pillar of the welfare state”, organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, at the Railway Museum, on January 13, 2025 in Madrid, Spain. During the event, the President of the Government made a new announcement on housing and highlighted access to housing as a key issue within the legislature, amid rising property prices, in particularly in large cities.
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Announcing 12 reforms aimed at tackling the crisis, Sánchez said the government’s proposals include a plan to ensure tourist apartments are taxed “like a business” and a proposal to levy a 100% tax on the value houses bought by non-EU residents.
Such changes, he said, would help make housing more accessible and affordable across Spain.
“Non-residents of the European Union bought 27,000 apartments in Spain [in 2023]. They did not do it to live, but to speculate, to make money with them, which we cannot afford in a context of shortage,” Sánchez told the forum “Housing, the fifth pillar of the welfare state” in Madrid on Monday evening. in comments reported by El Periodico and translated by Google.
“The progressive coalition government has always supported foreign investment, but we want it to be productive, to encourage innovation and create new jobs, and not to be used for speculation, as if it it was a financial asset or a bank deposit,” he added.
Spain, holiday homes, taxes
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Other measures introduced by Sanchezwho leads Spain’s left-wing Socialist Workers Party and a coalition government that includes the far-left Sumar party, plans to give tax breaks to landlords offering affordable rents and better protection for existing tenants.
He announced plans to build more social housing and ensure that existing social housing remains state property. A program will also be launched to renovate empty homes in order to rent them at affordable prices, he said.
The Prime Minister did not provide further details on how the tax would work on non-EU home buyers or give any indication of when such proposals might be submitted to Parliament for approval.
The government had already indicated its intention to try to limit accession to foreign property, announcing last year that it would abolish the “Golden Visa” program, introduced in 2013, which granted the right of residence to foreigners who had invested in Spanish real estate worth at least 500,000 euros. (approximately $513,000).
The housing shortage and rising prices – as well as the strong perception that holiday home owners and vacation rentals are exacerbating the problem – have caused a strong public backlash in Spain, as well as unrest in tourist hotspots on the south coast, in the Canary Islands and in cities like Barcelona and Alicante.
A tourist takes a photo of a message at Park Güell. Anti-tourism organizers have called for a 50% cut in daily ticket sales for the site, one of Barcelona’s main tourist draws.
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Reports of Tourists are told to “go home” and incidents of foreign visitors being sprayed with water guns have occurred, with locals urging authorities to tackle what they see as “overtourism”.
The Spanish economy, however, depends on tourism to stimulate growth and employment, with the sector accounting for more than 13% of GDP. and around three million jobs. In the first 11 months of 2024, the number of international tourists arriving in Spain reached its highest level on record, exceeding 88.5 million, according to data from the country’s statistical agency. INE.
“Tourism is not only boosting consumer spending, but high accommodation occupancy rates are also driving record investment in hotels,” Maartje Wijffelaars, senior eurozone economist at Rabobank. said in the analysis last September.
“We expect GDP growth in Spain to slow somewhat in the future as growth in the tourism sector is expected to falter. But growth is expected to remain strong and exceed that of the Eurozone over the next quarters and years to come, to settle at 2.7”. % [in 2024]1.9% in 2025 and 1.5% in 2026,” she said.
