Spain launched the “Golden Visa” program in 2013 (representative)
Madrid:
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Monday that Spain would scrap its so-called “golden visa” scheme, under which foreign investors can gain residency by investing 500,000 euros in real estate, in a bid to curb speculation that has plagued many Spanish cities. .
During a visit to a region near the southern city of Seville, Sanchez said the government would “abolish the so-called golden visa scheme, which allows for residency in exchange for an investment of 500,000 euros in property”.
He said the move, which will be approved at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, will allow the government to crack down on “speculative investment” in property that prevents “many young people and families” from accessing homes.
The program, launched in 2013 as the economy was in trouble and Spain looked to attract foreign investment, offered non-EU investors three-year work and residence permits in exchange for investing at least 500,000 euros ($542,000) in real estate or a Spanish company.
“Today, 94 out of every 100 such visas are related to real estate investments concentrated in large cities,” he said, referring to Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga and Alicante in the south and Valencia in the east. and the Mediterranean region of Spain. Balearic Islands.
These areas have “extremely tight real estate markets that make it almost impossible for people who live, work and pay taxes there to find decent housing,” Sanchez said.
In recent months, several southern European countries that instituted similar schemes during the financial crisis have either tightened rules or abandoned them altogether to ease their respective housing crises.
In February 2023, Portugal ended its golden visa program, which had significantly pushed up housing prices, and late last month, Greece tightened the rules of its own program, raising the required investment to as much as 800,000 euros.
The visas are “a disgrace to Europe. You cannot grant a residence permit to someone just because he is a millionaire,” said Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun, also of the radical left-wing Soumal party. spokesman for the party, which is part of Spain’s ruling coalition led by the Socialist Party.
In 2019, Brussels urged member states to crack down on such schemes, saying they largely benefited wealthy Chinese and Russian investors and warning that the practice could fuel corruption and money laundering.
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