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Spain‘s socialist prime minister has vowed to completely ban non-resident Brits from buying homes in the country.
Speaking at a Socialist Party event in the Extremadura region in western Spain on Sunday, Pedro Sanchez said: ‘We are going to propose that these non-EU foreigners, who neither they nor their families reside here and who are therefore only speculating with these homes and houses, be prohibited from buying them in our country’.
Sanchez’s remarks follow on from his announcement last week of a 12-point programme to tackle a mounting housing crisis which has left locals furious with the lack of available homes.
The measures included raising property tax for non-EU foreigners buying a home in Spain to a staggering 100% of the value of the property.
House-buyers in the country are currently expected to pay costs and taxes worth between 10 and 12 per cent of the price of the house, depending on where it is.
Sanchez said that the new tariff would help ‘prioritise the availability of housing for residents’.
He noted that in 2023 alone, non-residents from outside of the EU bought 27,000 houses and flats in Spain, ‘not to live in them, but mainly to speculate’.
He said this was ‘something that, in the context of the shortages we are experiencing, we cannot afford’.
Sanchez’s proposals would need to debated and approved by Parliament.
Spain has seen massive demonstrations grow year-on-year, with aggrieved locals decrying the housing shortage while opportunists buy up homes and rent them out to holidaymakers, or leave them vacant for most of the year.
Residency in Spain is open to UK nationals and other non-EU citizens planning to stay longer than 90 days, subject to fees and proof of financial stability.
Sanchez’s radical plan to address the housing crisis which was presented last week also outlined measures focused on reforming the construction industry, ensuring affordable rentals and offering incentives to those who follow renting guidelines.
This includes transferring land to a new Public Housing Company that the government says it will use to build thousands of new affordable rental houses.
Sanchez said in the first half of this year the company will begin to incorporate more than 30,000 Sareb homes, some 13,000 with immediate effect.
The government also hopes to ‘rehabilitate’ vacant homes for additional ‘affordable rental’, offering incentives to those who renovate flats and make it available for an extended period of time.
It hopes an income tax exemption for owners letting out their homes according to the ‘Reference Price Index’ will encourage a healthier rental ecosystem.
In a bid to ensure Spaniards can access homes before wealthy non-EU citizens, the proposals also include a measure to ‘limit’ the purchase of homes by people who ‘do not reside in our country’.
This is to be tightened with regulations on fraud for seasonal rentals, disincentivising those who illicitly look to make the most of Spain’s lucrative tourist season.
