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Houses along a hill outside Marbella on the sunny coast, Costa del Sol, Spain.
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Spain is planning to impose a 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents as it appears to be facing an entrenched housing crisis in the country.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday proposed a package of measures aimed at easing the housing shortage, high rents and rising house prices across the country, along with foreign home buyers and tourism. of mass seen as contributing to housing pressures.
Speaking in a forum on the matter, the socialist leader Sanchez he said that access to housing was one of the main challenges facing Spanish society and that there was a risk of division between the communities.
“The West faces a decisive challenge: not to become a society divided into two classes, that of rich owners and poor tenants,” he said, noting that housing prices in Europe have increased by 48% in l ‘last decade, almost twice as much. as family income.
“We are facing a serious problem, with enormous social and economic implications, which requires a decisive response from society in general, with public institutions at the forefront,” he said, secondly. comments published by the government.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, speaks during the “Housing, fifth pillar of the Welfare State” forum, organized by the Ministry of Housing and the Urban Agenda, at the Railway Museum, on January 13 2025 in Madrid, Spain. During the event, the President of the Government made a new announcement on housing, and highlighted access to housing as a key issue in the legislature, amid the escalation of prices of real estate, especially in big cities.
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Announcing 12 reforms designed to tackle the crisis, Sanchez said the government’s proposals include a plan to ensure tourist apartments are taxed “like a business” and a proposal to impose a 100% tax on the value of houses bought by non-EU residents.
Such changes, he said, would help make housing more affordable and accessible throughout Spain.
“Non-residents of the European Union bought 27,000 apartments in Spain [in 2023]. They did it not to live, but to speculate, to make money with them, something that in the context of scarcity we cannot afford”, Sanchez said at the forum “Housing, the fifth pillar of the welfare state ” in Madrid on Monday evening. in comments reported by El Periodico and translated by Google.
“The progressive coalition government has always embraced foreign investment, but we want it to be productive, encourage innovation and create new jobs, not serve for speculation, as if it were a financial asset or a bank deposit “, he added.
Spain, holiday homes, taxes
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Other measures introduced by Sanchezwho leads Spain’s left-wing Socialist Workers’ Party and a coalition government that includes the far-left Sumar party, included plans to provide tax breaks to landlords who offer affordable rents and more protections for existing tenants .
He announced plans to build more public housing and to ensure that existing social housing remains state-owned. A program would also be launched to renovate empty homes for affordable rent, he said.
The prime minister did not provide further details on how the tax on non-EU home buyers would work or give any indication of when such proposals might be presented to parliament for approval.
The housing shortage, rising prices – and a strong perception that holiday home owners and holiday rentals are exacerbating the problem – have caused a strong public reaction in Spain, and even unrest in the points hot tourist along the south coast, the Canary Islands, and in cities including. Barcelona and Alicante.
Reports of tourists are told to “go home” and incidents of foreign visitors being sprayed with water guns have emerged with locals urging the authorities to tackle “the most of tourism”.
A tourist takes a photo of a message in Park Guell. Anti-tourism organizers have demanded a 50% reduction in daily ticket sales at the site, one of Barcelona’s main tourist attractions.
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The Spanish economy relies on tourism to drive growth and employment, however, with the sector representing more than 13% of GDP. and about three million jobs. In the first 11 months of 2024, the number of international tourists arriving in Spain reached its highest figure ever, surpassing 88.5 million, according to data from the country’s statistics agency, INE.
Maartje Wijffelaars, senior economist for the euro area at Rabobank, Maartje Wijffelaars: “Tourism is not only driving consumer spending, but high accommodation occupancy rates are also driving record investments in hotels.” said in analysis last September
“We have projected GDP growth in Spain to slow down a little further, as growth in the tourism sector is projected to lose some steam. But growth is expected to be strong and higher than in the eurozone in the next quarters and years, comes in 2.7%. [in 2024]1.9% in 2025, and 1.5% in 2026,” he said.
