The process to eliminate the ‘Golden Visa’ continues. The Congress of Deputies approved this Thursday the elimination of this figure, which allows obtaining a residence permit by purchasing a home for more than half a million euros. The Executive has articulated the process through an amendment introduced in the law on measures regarding the efficiency of the public Justice service, which must now be sent to the Senate.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced in April his intention to end this figure, which Mariano Rajoy launched in 2013 to attract foreign capital, which allowed access to the residence regime if more than 500,000 euros were invested in real estate. “The speculative investment in housing,” Sánchez said then, “is not the country model we want.”
Since the entry into force of this mechanism, more than 14,576 visas have been granted, according to data from the Ministry of Housing. According to information collected by elDiario.es, between 2018 and 2022 alone, foreign millionaires had made real estate investments in the country for around 4.8 billion euros. By number of golden visas, China is in the lead, with 1,302 applications; followed by Russia, with 521; Iran (124) and the United Kingdom (123).
Although the majority of applications come from people who buy a home in Spain, a small group, around 6%, opt for them through investments of any other type. Although at first it was not clear whether these would also be affected, the amendment presented at the end of July also included the elimination of permits for business projects. Specifically, the regulations allowed non-resident foreigners who invest at least one million euros in shares or social participations of Spanish companies, in investment funds or in bank deposits in financial institutions and two million in public debt.
However, the entry into force of the ban is not immediate. The rule must pass to the Senate and, once published in the BOE, those requests that have been previously requested will continue to be processed, which gives these investors room to continue acquiring properties.
Minister Isabel Rodríguez pointed out in April that the end of this instrument “will give opportunities to those who have problems accessing housing in specific places, with price tension and lack of residential supply.” In fact, according to data from its department, Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga, Alicante, the Balearic Islands and Valencia, six especially stressed and with skyrocketing prices, account for 90% of the authorizations. “In some relevant cities, home purchases linked to these investments have come to represent up to 7.1% (Marbella) or 5.3% (Barcelona) of total home sales in the same year,” they indicated.
The Executive has based its decision to end the ‘Golden Visa’ on the commitment to guarantee “that housing is a right and not a speculative business”, but also on the fact that the European Commission urged the Member States in 2022 “to repeal “immediately any existing investor citizenship system.” “Countries like Ireland or Portugal have already eliminated these visas and others are tightening the requirements to obtain them,” said Rodríguez.
Eliminating these formulas has also been a demand of the minority partner of the coalition. When Sánchez announced his intention to suppress them, the second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, assured that the decision had been made with Sumar despite the fact that it was being addressed “in the budget negotiation” and that the socialists “were opposed at that time.”
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