21 January 2025 , 10:05
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The Spanish government is planning to ban non-resident Brits from buying homes in the country.
This announcement comes just days after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez laid out plans to slap a 100 per cent property tax on non-EU homeowners in the country.
Sánchez has announced a slew of housing measures in recent weeks as he looks to quell anger over rising property prices, with rents in Madrid soaring by 60 per cent since 2015.
“We are going to propose to ban non-EU foreigners from buying houses in our country, in cases where neither they nor their families reside here and they are just speculating with those homes,” Sánchez told his Socialist party.
His 12-point plan has been divisive in Spain with the conservative People’s Party (PP) branding the decision to raise taxes for non-EU citizens “xenophobic.”
They noted that non-EU home purchases only made up 4 per cent of all Spanish house sales in 2023
House-buyers in the country are currently expected to fork out for costs and taxes worth between 10 and 12% of the house price, depending on its location.
Mr Sanchez said that the new levy would help “prioritise the availability of housing for residents”.
Mr Sánchez also accused the 27,000 foreigners from outside the EU who purchased homes in Spain in 2023 of buying the properties “not to live in them, but to speculate”.
He added that house prices are one of Europe’s “main challenges, adding that “average house prices in Europe have risen by 48% in the last decade and it is unbearable.”
France, Portugal and Greece could be set to follow in the footsteps of Spain and crack down on British expats, according to the Mirror.
Like most Western countries, France and Portugal have been hit with a housing crisis in recent years, with locals complaining of soaring costs and a lack of availability.
France has been taking to steps to stem the rise of short-term tourist rents in recent years, but despite these efforts, the number of these holiday lets grew from 300,000 to 1.2 million between 2016 and 2024.
While Greece issued a blanket ban on short-term rentals in the centre of Athens following a massive public outcry.