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The ‘golden visa’ program — which grants residency rights to foreigners who make large investments in real estate — is to be wound down, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced Monday.
“We are going to start the procedure to eliminate the granting of the so-called golden visa,” said Sánchez during a visit to the Sevillian municipality of Dos Hermanas. “We will take the necessary measures to ensure that housing is a right and not a mere speculative business.”
The law, which was introduced in 2013, awards non-EU citizens investing at least €500,000 in Spanish real estate — without taking out a mortgage — a special permit allowing them to live and work in the country for three years.
The majority of this investment is highly concentrated: 94 out of every 100 visas obtained through this legal procedure are linked to investment in real estate in major cities such as Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga, Alicante, Valencia or Palma de Mallorca, El País reported.
According to the Socialist leader, the program has become a “speculative model” which has “made it impossible to find decent housing for those who live and work in them and pay their taxes every day.”
“That is not the model of the country that we need,” argued Sánchez, adding that it is “a model that leads to disaster and to lacerating inequality.”
The Spanish government will formally launch the process to eliminate the scheme on Tuesday at the weekly cabinet meeting, after studying a report submitted by the Housing Ministry, Sánchez told reporters.
In 2022, the European Commission urged member countries to end all similar programs, citing security risks in the context of of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“European values are not for sale,” European Commissioner for Justice and Consumers Didier Reynders said at the time. “The sale of citizenship through ‘golden passports’ is illegal under EU law and poses serious risks to our security. It opens the door to corruption, money laundering and tax avoidance,” he added.
Since then, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Greece and Malta have all either scrapped or tightened the rules around their existing ‘golden visa’ — or equivalent — schemes.
