MADRID: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday proposed a range of measures to combat a housing crisis in the country, including a 100 per cent tax on the purchase of homes by non-resident non-EU foreigners, reported German news agency (dpa).
Sánchez said the measure would impose a 100 per cent tax rate on the value of the property for non-EU citizens who do not reside in Spain when they buy a house in Spain, in order to “prioritise” housing for residents and fight the “speculative touristic use of properties”.
Sánchez told an economic forum in Madrid that the “unprecedented” measure for Spain, but already in place in countries such as Canada and Denmark, was “appropriate and very necessary” when considering the current housing crisis.
“In 2023 alone, non-EU residents bought around 27,000 houses and flats in Spain. Not to live in them, not for their relatives to live in them; they did it mainly to speculate, to make money off them,“ Sánchez said.
This, he added, in a context of residential shortage, cannot be “allowed”, asserting that Spain’s government welcomes foreign investment when it is “productive”, not when it is speculative.
The prime minister also said he would propose taxing tourist housing “as what they are, a business”.
The measures were among a broader package to address Spain’s housing crisis presented by Sánchez on Monday. They also included the transfer of more than 3,300 houses to a new public housing company and state support for young renters.
In recent months, there have been demonstrations for affordable housing as well as protests against high rents and the impact of mass tourism across Spain.
