Pressure is building in Spain to stop foreigners from buying property unless they meet one condition. Last year, the number of foreign people buying homes in Spain made up around one in five of all transactions. Now, a political party has put forward a proposal to decrease this number.
The Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) filed a motion in the Spanish Congress which proposes to stop foreigners from buying homes across the nation unless they can prove they have lived in Spain for five consecutive years. According to the pro-independence party, 60% of homes in Catalonia are purchased without mortgages or any form of financing.
ERC MP Etna Estrems said: “We cannot allow housing to become a luxury reserved for large international buyers while the local population struggles to access it (housing).” The ERC cited countries such as Canada, Denmark, and New Zealand, where limits have been put in place for foreigners to purchase properties.
Meanwhile, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya wants all of Spain’s regional governments to have the power to prevent foreign buyers. They’ve proposed a system where foreigners must apply for a permit from the housing department before buying a home in Spain.
However, if such a system were implemented, then temporary residents may not be able to buy homes as they will need to prove five years of continuous residence first.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in January that his government was considering a “100% super tax” on all foreign property buyers. He also announced plans to completely stop them from buying homes unless they can prove links to Spain.
He said at a political rally in Plasencia: “We will propose to ban these non-EU foreigners who are not residents, and their relatives, from buying houses in our country since they only do so to speculate.” He added that residents are fed up with soaring rents in popular cities across the nation.
Although these proposals have not come to fruition, the Barcelona city council has approved plans to explore “legal tools” to ban foreigners from buying property in the Catalan capital. They hope the move will curb the housing crisis and protect locals’ access to affordable housing.