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Why is Spain planning a 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents?


Houses along a hillside outside Marbella on the sunny coast, Costa del Sol, in Spain.

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Spain is planning to impose a tax of 100% on homes bought by non-EU residents as it looks to tackle an entrenched housing crisis in the country.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday proposed a package of measures aimed at alleviating a shortage of homes, high rents and rising house prices across the country, with foreign home buyers and mass tourism seen as contributing to housing pressures.

Speaking at a forum on the matter, socialist leader Sanchez said access to housing was one of the main challenges facing Spanish society and that there was a risk of division among 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 had increased by 48% in the last decade, almost twice as much as household income.

“We are facing a serious problem, with enormous social and economic implications, which requires a decisive response from society as a whole, with public institutions at the forefront,” he said, according to comments published by the government.

The President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, speaks during the forum ‘Housing, fifth pillar of the Welfare State’, organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, at the Railway Museum, on 13 January, 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 within the legislature, in the midst of escalating property prices, especially in large cities. 

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Announcing 12 reforms designed to address the crisis, Sanchez said the government’s proposals include a plan to make sure tourism apartments were taxed “like a business” and a proposal to levy a 100% tax on the value of homes bought by non-EU residents.

Such changes, he said, would help to make housing more accessible and affordable across Spain.

“Non-residents of the European Union bought 27,000 apartments in Spain [in 2023]. They did so not to live, but to speculate, to make money with them, something that in the context of scarcity we cannot afford,” Sanchez told the forum “Housing, the fifth pillar of the welfare state” in Madrid 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 bank deposit,” he added.

Spain, holiday homes, tax

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Other measures introduced by Sanchez, who heads the leftwing Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and a coalition government that includes the far-left Sumar party, included plans to provide tax relief to landlords offering affordable rents and…



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