Spain is planning to impose a tax of as much as 100% on properties purchased by non-residents from international locations outdoors the EU, such because the UK.
Saying the transfer, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez mentioned the “unprecedented” measure was mandatory to fulfill the nation’s housing emergency.
“The West faces a decisive problem: To not turn out to be a society divided into two courses, the wealthy landlords and poor tenants,” he mentioned.
Non-EU residents purchased 27,000 properties in Spain in 2023, he instructed an financial discussion board in Madrid, “to not stay in” however “to earn a living from them”.
“Which, within the context of scarcity that we’re in, [we] clearly can’t permit,” he added.
The transfer was subsequently designed to “priorit[ise] that the accessible properties are for residents”, he mentioned.
Sánchez didn’t present particulars on how the tax would work nor a timeline for presenting it to parliament for approval, the place he has usually struggled to assemble enough votes to move laws.
However his authorities mentioned the proposal can be finalised “after cautious research”.
It’s one among a dozen deliberate measures introduced by the prime minister on Monday geared toward bettering housing affordability within the nation.
Different measures introduced embody a tax exemption for landlords who present reasonably priced housing, transferring greater than 3,000 properties to a brand new public housing physique, and tighter regulation and better taxes on vacationer flats.
“It is not truthful that those that have three, 4 or 5 residences as short-term leases pay much less tax than inns,” he mentioned.