The Spanish Senate has vetoed a bill which would see the end of the country’s Golden Visa, meaning the bill now must return to Congress again for further discussion.
In April, Spain announced plans to scrap its Residency by Investment scheme – or Golden Visa.
It allows Brits and other nationalities from countries outside the European Union to move to Spain with few paperwork problems, providing they buy a home worth more than 500,000 euros (£412,000) or make a big investment.
At that time, it was thought that the ban could come into effect as early as January 2025.
The scheme has proved popular with Brits who faced more paperwork as a result of Brexit – so this latest update will be welcome news for those looking for a property.
In total, 2024 has seen 780 Golden Visas granted up to the end of October, with 573 of those granted since the abolition announcement was made. According to the Spanish government, hundreds of visas have been issued to Britons.
The British are still one of the major foreign buyers of property in Spain despite the fact that non-residents can only spend 180 days a year in the country.
Part of the disagreement over the ban is political – the Senate is controlled by the centre-right party, the Partido Popular (PP), while Congress is in the hands of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his coalition government of the centre-left Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and the radical left-wing Unidas Podemos.
However, there was also concern over the way the Spanish government has tried to push through the bill, known as the Judicial Efficiency Bill.
At the heart of the bill are rules around expedited trials for cases of illegal squatting, with the Golden Visa ban tracked on as an extra.
According to the Official Gazette of the Spanish Parliament from December 2, the PP’s rationale for the veto revolved around the government’s failure to employ “proper legislative drafting techniques”.
It argued that the simultaneous processing of two legislative projects affecting the same laws would create confusion, describing the bill “a hodgepodge of uncoordinated legislative amendments”.
Dr Jacinto Soler-Matutes, Senior Partner at Emergia Partners – a company focused on business development in emerging markets – told Investment Migration Insider that Congress could ratify the ban in any one of its forthcoming plenary sessions scheduled in December, with publication in the Official Gazette in early January.
“We must count on the Spanish Golden Visa finally phasing out around April 1,” he added.
It comes as no surprise that the number of applications have ramped up significantly since its abolition was first announced, with the rate moving from an average of 69 per month between January and March to 95 from April to October.
According to Catalan News, the highest number of Golden Visa approvals are for Chinese nationals, with more than 3,300 visas issued between 2013 and 2023. Russian nationals have been snapping them up too, with 3,100 issued over the 10 years.
While the scheme has been successful in generating investment in Spain, it is not without its controversy. Affordable housing is a problem throughout Europe, but the situation is particularly acute in Spain: the Bank of Spain has said 600,000 new homes need to be built each year to satisfy demand, but current plans are for just 90,000 a year.
