Sánchez announces that he will eliminate golden visas for foreigners to buy a home

The Government will eliminate the provision that allows obtaining a residence visa based on housing investment, the so-called golden visa.olden visa, in English. This was announced this afternoon by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, during a visit to the municipality of Dos Hermanas. “I want to announce that tomorrow's Council of Ministers [por este martes] “is going to study a report submitted by the Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda to modify the law, approved by the PP in 2013, which allows obtaining a residence visa if you invest in housing in our country,” said Sánchez from the Sevillian town. . “We are going to initiate the procedure to eliminate the concession of the call golden visa, which allows access to the residence regime when investing more than half a million euros in real estate. We are going to take the necessary measures to guarantee that housing is a right and not a mere speculative business,” added the head of the Executive.

Sánchez has assured that 94 out of every 100 visas obtained through this legal procedure are linked to investment in real estate and that they are concentrated in capitals such as Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Málaga, Alicante, Valencia or Palma de Mallorca. ”These are the cities that are facing a highly stressed 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 socialist leader said. “That is not the country model we need, that of speculative investment in housing, because it is a model that leads us to disaster and above all leads us to lacerating inequality as a consequence of the inaccessibility of many young people and families to housing.” ”, he insisted.

In the midst of the Basque election campaign, and in the pre-campaign of the Catalan elections, the Government seeks to give a boost to its housing policies, which is expected to be reflected this Tuesday in the decisions of the Council of Ministers. Sánchez has emphasized that the Government's priority in this legislature is to “guarantee access to affordable housing, to respond to citizens, so that no citizen has to allocate more than 30% of their income to have a home.” worthy, adequate and of quality.”

Golden visas for real estate investment have been a possibility in Spain since 2013, when the Law to support entrepreneurs and their internationalization was approved. The rule contemplates several cases in which a person can access a residence permit in Spain through a quick procedure. For example, it may be for supporting a startup. However, buying real estate worth at least half a million (it can be a house, but also any other category of property and it does not have to be a single purchase, more than one asset can be added) is the most common, just because behind the permits granted for family reunification.

The Executive has indicated that there are “close to 10,000” visas that have been granted in Spain through this procedure, highly criticized by NGOs and other associations from the beginning because they consider that it turns Spanish (and European by extension) residence into a commodity. The PSOE partners in the Executive, both in the previous legislature with Unidas Podemos and in this one with Sumar, have also criticized on many occasions the golden visa, a procedure that the European Commission spoke out against last year, when it asked community partners to eliminate it. According to the latest data from the Executive to which EL PAÍS had access, months ago, between 2013 and 2022, the granting of golden visas for all types of investments (shares, business projects, real estate…) totaled almost 11,500. Of them, about 10,800 (93.9%) referred only to home purchases or other properties.

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