 "People wait in front of the Passion facade (Western side) of the Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family (Sagrada Familia) in Barcelona. The country has now ended its golden visa programme, starting today (April 3). File image/AFP")
“No hay prisa”.
In Spain, this phrase embodies the way people live in the European nation, which translates to ‘there’s no rush’. However, for those who dreamt of living this idea up in the country, time has run out.
Why?
Because starting today (April 3), the European country has called time on its popular residency-by-investment programme, known as the “golden visa.” The move comes after the country’s congress in January approved the termination of the golden visa scheme.
But what led to this situation? How will it impact Spain? We deep dive to get these answers.
What is Spain’s golden visa scheme?
The residency-by-investment programme in Spain began in 2013 after the country, along with others such as Greece and Portugal , were desperate to attract investors as they climbed out of the 2009 debt crisis. To attain a golden visa, all one had to do was to acquire real estate worth €500,000 (Rs 4.7 crore) or possess investment funds, bank deposits, or listed company shares in Spanish financial institutions with a minimum value of €1 million (Rs 9.4 crore).
Spain’s Golden Visa granted applicants the right to reside and work in Spain, but unlike other residency permits, it did not require them to live in the country full-time. Beneficiaries only needed to visit Spain for one day per year to maintain their residency status.
How popular has Spain’s golden visa been?
Since its inception, Spain’s golden visa has become quite popular with people from across the world flocking to acquire it.
Between 2013 and 2023, Spain granted a total of 14,576 golden visas, the majority of which were given to citizens of China, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Ukraine, Iran, Venezuela, and Mexico, according to a government press release. Additionally, data shows that the programme generated about $10 billion in investments for the country.
The buzz around Spain’s golden visa, as experts noted was owing to two reasons: it offered a more affordable lifestyle at an affordable price. Moreover, it gave many foreigners, especially Americans a reprieve from its politics. Javier Rosado of Strand Properties Fuengirola, a coastal town near Málaga, told the New York Times that as of 2020, the number of Americans residing in Spain had grown by 32 per cent, to nearly 70,000. “They wanted to avoid the poisonous politics,” he said.
If that was the case, why scrap the golden visa scheme?
But as the number of golden visas increased, many noticed that it was having a negative impact on the country’s housing market. Experts say that foreign property buyers, mostly interesting in acquiring the golden visa, pushed up the prices of real estate, forcing many local residents out of their neighbourhoods.
For instance, in Spain, rents and home prices have both risen by 11 per cent — largely driven by foreign homeowners. According to Spanish property website Idealista, rental prices in Spain rose by 11.5 per cent in 2024, reaching an all-time high in December with an average of €13.5 per square metre.
This phenomenon became particularly notable in large cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia where tourism was booming. In Madrid, the city centre saw rents increase by 21 per cent in one year, with prices rarely falling below €2,000 per month, Quique Villalobos, a spokesperson for urban planning and housing with the Federation of Neighbourhood Associations of Madrid told Euronews. In municipalities in the metropolitan area, rents of €1,200 to €1,500 are being demanded for three-bedroom properties, he added.
In Barcelona, the picture is similar, with the boom in tourist flats being a key factor. Such was the situation that Spain saw massive protests against tourists in 2024, with protesters demanding that tourists leave the country. In July, angry protesters caught the world’s attention when they fired water pistols at surprised tourists in Barcelona.
Commenting on the same, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said last April, “Housing is a constitutional right, not a mere speculative business. That’s why we’re going to eliminate the golden visa.”
In January, he once again reiterated the housing crisis, saying, “What’s lacking is housing,” adding that some 27,000 homes and apartments in the country were purchased by non-EU residents in 2024. Many of those, he said, were not purchased to live in, but rather to rent out on platforms like Airbnb, to the detriment of the local community. “The West faces a decisive challenge,” he continued. “To not become a society divided into two classes, the rich landlords and poor tenants.”
On January 3, a decree from the Spanish government announced that the golden visa would come to an end, with the ruling taking effect three months later — April 3.
What comes next for Spain?
Sanchez believes that the discontinuation of the golden visa will help address the country’s housing crisis. But experts believe otherwise.
Andres Gutierrez, the head of Spain office at Henley & Partners told Firstpost in an email that it is improbable that the elimination of the programme will have any impact on the housing market. He added that less than one per cent of the property purchases made by foreigners have been used as qualifying investments under Law 14/2013.
William Morillas of Target Estates in Mijas Pueblo, near Málaga, concurs with this. Speaking to the New York Times, he said, “It’s a political stunt. It will not do anything to help housing.”
In concluding remarks, Gutierrez said, “Spain has lost an opportunity to align the programme with the strategic objectives of the government to raise Foreign Direct Investment and benefit the country as a whole.”
With inputs from agencies