Houses along a hill outside Marbella on the sunny coast, Costa del Sol, in Spain.
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Spain is planning to impose a 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents as it aims to tackle a deep-seated housing crisis in the country.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday proposed a package of measures aimed at easing 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 issue, Socialist leader Sanchez said access to housing was one of the main challenges facing Spanish society and there was a risk of division between communities.
“The West faces a crucial challenge: not to become a society divided into two classes, that of rich landlords and poor renters,” he said, noting that house prices in Europe had risen by 48% in the decade the last, almost twice as much. as family income.
“We are facing a serious problem, with major 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, the fifth pillar of the welfare state”, organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, at the Railway Museum, on January 13, 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, amid escalating property prices, especially in major cities.Â
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Announcing 12 reforms designed to address the crisis, Sanchez said the government’s proposals include a plan to ensure tourist apartments are taxed “like a business” and a proposal to impose a 100% tax on the value of homes bought by non-EU residents.
Such changes, he said, would help make housing more accessible and affordable across Spain.
“Non-residents of the European Union bought 27 thousand apartments in Spain [in 2023]. They did this not to live, but to speculate, to make money with them, something that in the context of scarcity we cannot afford,” Sanchez said at the forum “Housing, the fifth pillar of the welfare state” in Madrid on Monday evening, comments reported by El Periodico and translated by Google.
“The progressive coalition government has always embraced foreign investments, but we want them to be productive, encourage innovation and create new jobs, not serve for speculation, as if they were a financial asset or a bank deposit,” he added. he.
Spain, holiday homes, taxes
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Other measures introduced by Sanchez, who heads the left-wing Spanish Socialist Workers Party and a coalition government that includes the far-left Sumar party, included plans to offer tax relief to landlords who offer affordable rent and more protection for existing tenants.
He announced plans to build more public housing and ensure that existing social housing remains state-owned. A program will also be launched to renovate vacant homes for affordable rent, he said.
The Prime Minister did not give any further details on how the tax would work for non-EU home buyers or give any indication of when such proposals could be brought to parliament for approval.
Housing shortages, rising prices – and a strong perception that holiday home owners and holiday rentals are exacerbating the problem – have provoked a strong public backlash in Spain, as well as unrest in tourist hotspots along the southern coast, Canary Islands. and in cities including Barcelona and Alicante.
Reports of tourists being told to “go home” and incidents of foreign visitors being doused with water guns have emerged with locals calling on authorities to deal with “excess tourism”.
A tourist takes a picture of a message in Park Guell. Anti-tourism organizers have called for a 50% reduction in daily ticket sales to the site, one of Barcelona’s main tourist attractions.
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Spain’s economy relies on tourism to drive growth and jobs, however, with the sector accounting for over 13% of GDP and around three million jobs. In the first 11 months of 2024, the number of international tourists arriving in Spain reached an all-time high of 88.5 million, according to data from the country’s statistics agency, INE.
“Tourism is not only driving consumer spending, but high accommodation occupancy rates are also driving record investment in hotels,” Maartje Wijffelaars, senior eurozone economist at Rabobank, said in an analysis last September.
“We expect GDP growth in Spain to moderate somewhat going forward, as growth in the tourism sector is expected to lose some steam. But growth is expected to remain strong and higher than in the eurozone in the coming quarters and years, reaching 2.7% [in 2024]1.9% in 2025, and 1.5% in 2026,” she said.
