Spain plots 100% property tax to prevent new expats from buying homes 🇪🇸

What surprises me is that they haven't thought of it before.

Of course there are those who would like immigrants expats coming to this country to be taxed more than the indigenous population when buying a house...

Wheniwasyourage

Of course there are those who would like immigrants expats coming to this country to be taxed more than the indigenous population when buying a house...

Oh dear. I think that might be me.

There are so many empty/used once or twice a year properties in London bought as an investment by overseas owners

I was thinking more of people who actually want to come here to live, Lathyrus3, not of the investors you mention. I always find the use of the term "expats" for Brits who want to move abroad an odd contrast with the term "immigrants' for people who want to come and live here.

It's not new people thinking of moving out there that I feel for, it's those who've lived out there for a while & for whatever reason, want to come home.
Isn't this going to make their properties incredibly difficult to sell? There aren't the jobs on the coast for all of the ex-pat properties to go to locals, surely?

These people are keeping the local shops open because they need groceries, buy wine, and dine out for the odd coffee and restaurant meal.

I suppose it depends on the numbers because prices shoot up if too many move into an area.

Expats are not immigrants because most of them are on time-limited contracts and once they have completed their contracts they will return home, unless they get another one.

We should do the same here! Did anyone else see the TV prog. the other night about high end estate agents deliberately turning a blind eye to what was clearly dodgy Russian money? For London houses priced in the millions?

I gather that Denmark doesn’t allow any non-Dane to buy property, unless they’ve actually lived there for 5 years. Apparently this was down to a fear of Germans coming in and buying up masses of housing (perhaps especially near their extensive coastline) but EU law wouldn’t allow them to say no Germans, so they made it a blanket ‘no foreigners’ ban.

Rural Southern Spain is full of half empty villages. Young Spanish no longer want to live there. Some villages would struggle to survive without Brits from the UK and EU countries.

There are abandoned houses all over the countryside. The work is agricultural, cement and stone factories and seasonal tourism. Without outsiders coming to live there and tourism some of these places will die.

Young Spanish mostly want to live in the cities or buzzing areas.

Actually Spain are allowing in hundreds of thousands of Moroccans, Algerians, Malians, Senegalese, Venezuelans, Colombians and many other LATAM countries' nationals into their country every year...

Their government also announced they would regularise 500,000 illegal immigrants and yet they complain about 30,000 (or so) foreigners buying a few expensive properties.

Surely that is the problem?
Pedro Sánchez, of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), Typical socialist.

It won’t fly.

Nice double there for you FGT; lots of immigrants from non white countries, and a Socialist administration. You immigrants expats must be worried

FGT Young people like to go where the jobs are - and in large areas of rural Spain, as in France, there are large areas of poor quality agricultural land, with little or no industry and if young people do not migrate to the cities, they are condemend to unemployment or very poorly paid work.

Yes, Spain lets lots of immigrants into the country but they then live in the country and work there and live there all the time. Some British people do live in the remote areas, but most have holiday homes on or near the coast or in big towns - and growing affluence means that many more people have holiday homes. Of course it is not just the British, many second home owners come from other European countries, especially EU countries. Nor do British home owners just own expensive properties. They buy flats and small villas, much the same as local people want to live in.

It is not a lot different to the problems that arise in south west England. Wealthy people coming into the area to buy holiday cottages, and retirement homes, the homes they want are the homes that were previously the first homes for locals and they price locals out of the market.

It’s not just SW England, either. A sister lives in a small Yorkshire Dales town, where there are a lot of 2nd homes/holiday lets, and property prices are relatively high. I dare say the same applies in sundry other U.K. areas - e.g. the Lakes, just for starters.

rightcasa.com/this-is-how-many-britons-are-living-in-spain-right-now/#:~:text=According%20to%20immigration%20observatory%20data,living%20in%20Spain%20this%20year.
412,000 Brits live in Spain, plus all those who live in the UK and have second homes there, plus tourists from the UK. Multiply that for other European countries and you begin to see the issue for the Spanish, who want to have an economy that isn’t just based on tourism and the grey foreign pound/euro. I think they are doing what is right for their own country, as they are entitled to do.

That is not quite the story as reported by the BBC. The BBC report says that Spain intends to put 100% tax on properties bought by non EU buyers as short term rentals.

The West faces a decisive challenge: To not become a society divided into two classes, the rich landlords and poor tenants," he said.
Non-EU residents bought 27,000 properties in Spain in 2023, he told an economic forum in Madrid, "not to live in" but "to make money from them".
"^Which, in the context of shortage that we are in, [we] obviously cannot allow," he added^

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr7enzjrymxo

I think this, if it becomes law (which it may not) would be incredibly difficult to implement with problems of defining what ‘living in’ means for a start..then grey areas over what constitutes a ‘rental’, would lending it to family or friends count?

I don’t think it’s worth panicking about yet..

Think we should do the same. Just think all those empty flats in our cities bought out by foreigners and left empty,probably solve our housing problem in one fell swoop.

Yes, why not tax outsiders wishing to buy property ?
Pity they don't do it here too.

HousePlantQueen

Nice double there for you FGT; lots of immigrants from non white countries, and a Socialist administration. You immigrants expats must be worried

You do know the difference between expat and immigrant don't you ?The main difference between an expat and an immigrant isthe length of time they intend to stay in a new country:

Expat

A person who lives outside their home country for a limited time, usually for work.Expats may or may not intend to return to their home country.

Immigrant

A person who moves to a new country with the intention of settling there permanently.Immigrants may eventually seek out citizenship.

I don’t think I can class myself as an ex-pat in Málaga HPQ. Just a holidaymaker with a second home there this last 21 years so I’m not at all worried to be honest. We’ve always stayed within the 180 day allowance for visiting, don’t rent the apartment out and always take private health insurance in addition to our EHIC cards.

Actually I’m with MaizieD on this. Socialist pie in the sky which will either get watered down or never happen.

Some villages would struggle to survive without Brits from the UK and EU countries

FGT the extra tax will not apply to members of the EU.

Of course, as non-EU members it will apply to Brits - another “Brexit benefit” for you!

Think we should do the same. Just think all those empty flats in our cities bought out by foreigners and left empty,probably solve our housing problem in one fell swoop

Well said Freya👏👏👏

Actually I’m with MaizieD on this. Socialist pie in the sky which will either get watered down or never happen.

you don't really agree with me FGT because I think it's a perfectly reasonable idea. It would just be very difficult to implement and may not have the desired effect in the end. 27,000 dwellings aren't really that many in the scheme of things.

Freya5

Think we should do the same. Just think all those empty flats in our cities bought out by foreigners and left empty,probably solve our housing problem in one fell swoop.

Yes!

As I’ve said before on GN, I believe second home ownership is wrong - in whatever country. It inflates property prices, making ordinary property unaffordable for the local citizens.

If people wish to visit other areas / countries there are hotels, which contribute to the local economy through employment far more than second homes standing empty much of the time.

Until everyone has an affordable roof over their head, I believe no-one should have the right to own more than one home.