During a visit to the municipality of Dos Hermanas to participate in an event on social housing, Prime Minister Pedro, has announced that The Government will eliminate the Golden Visa, the provision that allows obtaining a residence visa based on a net investment of over €500,000 in real estate.
The golden visa was originally created by the PP Government of Mariano Rajoy in 2013, during the financial crisis, aimed at attracting foreign investors at a time when the real estate sector was languishing after the housing bubble burst and large capitals distrusted Spain.
Last year, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission warned against mechanisms that grand residency in exchange for money and asked EU partners to eliminate such gateways. Since then, countries like Ireland or Portugal have taken measures to cancel their Golden Visa Programs.
"I want to announce that the Council of Ministers tomorrow [Tuesday 9/04/24] will study a report submitted by the Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda to amend the law, approved by the PP in 2013, that allows obtaining a residence visa if you invest in housing in our country," Sánchez said. "We will start the process to eliminate the granting of the so-called Golden Visa, which allows access to the residence regime when investing more than half a million euros in real estate. We will take the necessary measures to ensure that housing is a right and not merely a speculative business," he added.
The Government had been considering this issue for several months. It debated between eliminating the Golden Visa regime or tightening it because it considers that the 500,000 euros limit was no longer a high barrier in the major Spanish capitals, where rising prices mean that a property of that value is no longer considered luxury.
The left-wing parliamentary groups of Sumar and Podemos have been demanding the abolition of the Golden Visa program for months arguing that it grants privileges solely on the basis of financial means.
Sánchez assured that 94 out of every 100 Golden Visa granted are linked to investment in real estate and are concentrated in the community capital cities such as Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga, Alicante, Valencia, or Palma de Mallorca. "These are cities facing a highly strained housing market, where it is almost impossible to find decent housing for those who live and work in them and pay their taxes every day," the Prime Minister hinted. "This is not the country model we need, that of speculative investment in housing because it leads us to disaster and above all leads us to harrowing inequality as a result of the inaccessibility of many young people and families to affordable housing," he insisted.
Sánchez emphasized that the Government's priority in this legislature is "to guarantee access to affordable housing, to respond to the citizenry, so that no citizen has to allocate more than 30% of their income to have a decent, adequate, and quality home."
As this announcement has only just been made, we are not yet sure what the time frame is for the cancellation of the Golden Visa Program, or how any changes will affect current applicants or current holders of Golden Visas.
As more information becomes available we will be certain to keep you updated.