Now PM Pedro Sánchez proposes banning non-EU foreigners from buying property in Spain. This comes hard on the heels of proposing a 100% property tax for foreigners. Eugene Costello reports
Now PM Pedro Sánchez proposes banning non-EU foreigners from buying property in Spain. This comes hard on the heels of proposing a 100% property tax for foreigners.
Speaking to a Socialist gathering in Extremadura, Sánchez said: “We are going to propose to ban non-EU foreigners from buying houses in our country, in cases where neither they nor their families reside here and they are just speculating with those homes.”
He blamed the housing crisis on measures passed by the conservative Popular Party when it was in government during the financial crisis that exploded in 2008.
Announcing a list of proposed measures last week, he vowed to offer more social housing, improve regulation and provide more support to renters.
Announcing his 12-point programme to tackle the crisis on Monday, Sánchez said non-residents from outside the European Union bought around 27,000 houses and apartments in Spain in 2023.
According to real estate registry data, Britons led the way for foreign property buyers in 2023 with 9.5 percent of the total transactions by non-Spaniards.
Sánchez has also announced higher taxes and tighter regulation for tourist apartments, often blamed for reducing the availability of residential properties and causing rents to spike.