Foreigners Who Buy Property in Spain to Get Residency
The Spanish Government has officialy released its plan to bring Spain out of the recession by offering residency to non-EU citizens who buy property worth over €160,000. The specific conditions are yet to be legislated on but the Secretary of Commerce, Jaime García-Legaz, has indicated that the property value is “balanced” and will not give rise to a massive demand for residency permits. He also said that the proposition is directed at the Chinese and Russian markets.
Three things we would like to comment on:
- If this is to happen, Spain risks being again a victim of its own success because the demand for property in Spain can be unprecedented, far more than in the boom years.
- China and Russia will only be tip of the iceberg as their citizens currently find less problems in obtaining tourist visas than citizens of countries like say Iran, Pakistan, Egypt etc.
- If this proposition is finally approved, raising property taxes may not be a bad idea altogether.
We can hope is that Spain will now be able to learn from its previous mistakes and manage the potential masses of property buyers more intelligently by implementing rigid controls on property developers – banning the dodgy ones of course-, real estate agencies and other connected professionals.