Spain plans 100% responsibility for homes bought by non-EU residents

Spain is planning to impose a responsibility of up to 100% on properties bought by non-residents from countries outside the EU, such as the UK.

Announcing the shift, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the “unprecedented” assess was essential to meet the country’s housing emergency.

“The West faces a decisive test: To not become a population divided into two classes, the wealthy landlords and impoverished 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.

The shift was therefore designed to “priorit[ise] that the available homes are for residents”, he said.

Sánchez did not provide details on how the responsibility would work nor a timeline for presenting it to parliament for approval, where he has often struggled to gather sufficient votes to pass legislation.

But his government said the proposal would be finalised “after careful study”.

It is one of a dozen planned measures announced by the prime minister on Monday aimed at improving housing affordability in the country.

Other measures announced include a responsibility exemption for landlords who provide affordable housing, transferring more than 3,000 homes to a recent community housing body, and tighter regulation and higher taxes on tourist flats.

“It isn’t fair that those who have three, four or five apartments as short-term rentals pay less responsibility than hotels,” he said.