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VISAS

Pressure rises on Spain to axe golden visas 100 days after announcement

An MP for Spain’s junior government partner has urged Pedro Sánchez to “keep his word” and “urgently” repeal the golden visa scheme for foreigners who buy Spanish property worth €500K+, 100 days after the PM made the announcement.

Published: 22 July 2024 14:05 CEST
Pressure rises on Spain to axe golden visas 100 days after announcement
It's still possible to get the Spanish golden visa even though its cancellation was announced in April. Photo: Márcio Azevedo/Unsplash

Compromís deputy Alberto Ibáñez, part of the left-wing group Sumar which governs together with Sánchez’s Socialists, on Friday said the Spanish premier “must keep his word” and scrap the golden visa scheme through property purchase “urgently”.

Ibáñez, a Sumar spokesperson for Housing in the Spanish Congress, warned that this visa “encourages speculation, increases the price of housing and puts pressure on neighbourhoods”.

“It discriminates based on people’s economic capacity,” he argued, affecting above all high-demand and tourist areas such as the province of Alicante, where more than 10 percent of golden visa holders are located.

These were some of the reasons given by Sánchez back on April 8th when he announced the annulment of the visado de oro (golden visa) which gave residency to non-EU nationals who bought one or more properties in Spain worth at least €500,000.

READ ALSO: What the end of Spain’s golden visa means for foreigners

However, more than three months after Spain’s Prime Minister stated that the golden visa had its days numbered, the scheme has not been revoked and people can still apply for the visa by buying a home worth half a million euros.

In fact, there’s been a surge of Chinese buyers in recent months getting their golden visas before the door closes.

“Countries such as Portugal, Ireland and Greece have taken measures to end this practice that increases the violation of the right to housing,” Ibáñez added, while arguing that Spain was “at a critical point” and that Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez had to act “quickly”.

In Portugal’s case, the golden visa announcement was made in February 2023 but it wasn’t until October of that year that the scheme’s residency for real estate option was actually scrapped.

INTERVIEW: ‘There are three main alternatives to Spain’s golden visa’

As for Greece, the government is planning to raise the golden visa threshold and to introduce two tiers but not completely eliminate the option (these changes have not yet happened and are expected to come into force in August 2024).

In Ireland, the golden visa scheme is officially over now but in February 2024 authorities had a backlog of previously submitted applications to resolve that could take “years”.

All this points to the fact that although several European countries are following EU advice and cancelling a scheme not considered to be in keeping with the bloc’s principles, actually doing so in practice can take time and be complex.

Last June, The Local reported how Spain’s government wasn’t sure how it would cancel its golden visa scheme, with ministers hoping they could slip the amendment through parliament in an unrelated bill.

READ MORE: Spain unclear how it will legally cancel golden visa scheme

Nobody truly knows yet when exactly the property-based golden visa will end, but what does seem almost certain is that it will happen eventually.

Spain’s other golden visa options – buying €1 million in shares in Spanish companies, or €2 million in government bonds, or transferring €1 million to a Spanish bank account – are to remain in place.  

READ ALSO – Spain’s soon-to-end golden visa: Can I still apply and what if I have it already?

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RENTING

‘Disgusting’: Can estate agencies in Spain charge you to see a rental property?

The Spanish rental market has seen severe price rises in the post-pandemic period, making life increasingly difficult for prospective renters. Now some estate agents are charging just to view properties.

Published: 29 August 2024 09:46 CEST
'Disgusting': Can estate agencies in Spain charge you to see a rental property?

A Spanish estate agent has caused outrage online and among renters by charging €10 simply to view a rental property.

For many this is further evidence of the worsening rental situation in Spain and comes as the market has grown increasingly saturated in the post-pandemic period, with average prices in Spanish cities skyrocketing in recent years.

A Real Estate Index from property website Fotocasa recently found that rents in Spain have almost doubled on average in just 10 years. In several cities the price increase has been over 100 percent.

READ ALSO: When’s the best time of the year to start renting in Spain?

Unsurprisingly much of the criticism has been directed towards landlords but now it seems Spanish estate agents are also trying to cash in.

The pay-to-view advert was first posted on popular Spanish property portal Idealista for a 65m2 attic flat in the town of Santa Coloma de Gramanet in Catalonia, close to Badalona. 

The offer had all the usual information that rental adverts do (price, pictures, location, transport connections, which floor it was on) but Grup Capital estate agents also included a line stating that each viewing would cost €9.90. 

Owing to the outrage it generated online, the advert has since been taken down but social media users managed to grab screenshots of the offer clearly stating se cobra la visita 9.90€ (€9.90 charged per visit). One post highlighting the tactic has been viewed over 333,000 times.

Twitter/X users didn’t hold back in their criticism of the advert, with one user stating that “I hope no one falls for this scam.” 

“It’s like being charged entry to go and buy bread,” joked one. “This is disgusting and surely illegal,” added another.

The legality of pay-to-view adverts is unclear. A provincial court in the southern city of Cádiz ruled recently that estate agents cannot charge for viewings for potential property sales, but there does not appear to be a clear national ruling on the issue or anything specific on rental properties yet.

Spain’s Housing Law reforms tried to pass fees and administrative costs onto landlords, but landlords and estate agents alike have both exploited legal loopholes to try and get around these costs.

One notable way landlords have done this is to find ways to get around rental price caps outlined in the government’s flagship housing legislation.

Spain’s Housing Law, which was passed back in 2023, was a wide-ranging bill that not only shifted agency fees onto landlords, created price indexes and established ‘stressed’ rental zones, but also ‘capped’ annual rent increases. Critics argue the law has made the rental market worse despite being designed with tenants in mind.

For many renters spending more and more of their monthly salary on rent, the viewing fees controversy speaks not only to the worsening market but the ineffectiveness of government legislation in doing anything about it.

Despite the outrage and questionable legality of charging for flat viewings, it’s nothing new in Spain. In October 2023 Spanish daily El Diario reported that prospective renters were also being charged viewing fees to see properties in Madrid.

READ ALSO: Has Spain’s Housing Law completely failed to control rents?

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