The measure was one of a dozen unveiled on Monday by the country’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, as the government seeks to quell mounting anger over housing costs that have soared far beyond the reach of many in Spain.
Sánchez sought to underline the global nature of the challenge, citing housing prices that had swelled 48% in the past decade across Europe, far outpacing household incomes.
“The west faces a decisive challenge: to not become a society divided into two classes, the rich landlords and poor tenants,” he told an economic forum in Madrid.
The proposed measures include expanding the supply of social housing, offering incentives to those who renovate and rent out empty properties at affordable prices and cracking down on seasonal rentals. In Spain just 2.5% of housing is set aside for social housing, a figure that lags drastically behind countries such as France and the Netherlands, said Sánchez.
On the surface it seems like a good idea: if the home isn’t going to be your primary residence you pay extra—a lot extra—to curtail a housing shortage caused in part by foreigners buying and inflating.
That said… if the issue there is anything like it is here in the states, the buyers will have more than enough capital to buy anyways and just pass the cost along to tenants… making the problem worse?
The bigger issue is that it’s quite easy to “hide” that you are foreign. To do so, simply set up a holding in Spain that buys the house on your behalf.
I agree with the measures I hope they address companies doing it too as it could be a loophole.
We were thinking about a move to Spain soon and in years to come possibly renting out the home we buy and live in South America to be closer to family.
I imagine in this case , as a non EU resident despite being an EU citizen the tax would apply.
Can we get this in Washington State please.
we need this in berlin too
All this 100% tax will do is stop the slightly less wealthy non-EU residents that are currently buying houses. People that can will just pay it despite the tax if they want it bad enough.
Do that there, do that here, Do that everywhere. Better for you and me, From see to sea.
At some point you wonder, why not just prevent them from owning homes if they’re not citizens? Kick em out and tell them to come back when they’re EU citizens, problem solved.
So immigrants all have to be renters? I don’t know the wait times in Spain, but in the US, it can take 20 years to become a citizen despite being on long-term visa or already a permanent resident. Meanwhile, citizens are allowed to engage in exploitation freely?
That’s a separate US issue.
It should be non-Spain but ok i guess, lets keep letting the rich countries in EU destroy our chance at a home…… (which i assume by fare are the most prevalent)
The problem is that there are EU freedom of movement rules. It would be hard to justify Spain-only in the face of those rules
Not really. Spanish residents only. Not citizens. So you can freely move into Spain and reside there. Once you reside there no 100% tax on buying a house. This should have nothing to do with freedom of movement.
