Shorouk Express
A political party has lodged a proposal to prevent foreigners from buying property in Spain if they can’t prove that they’ve lived in the country for at least five years.
The Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) has filed a non-legislative motion in the Spanish Congress which proposes restricting foreigners from buying homes in the northeastern region and across Spain unless they can first prove five years of continuous residence in the country.
Through its initiative, the pro-independence party seeks to curb speculation that in their words “expels” locals from the real estate market.
According to ERC, 15 percent of property purchases in Catalonia are made by foreigners, and in 60 percent of cases, the transactions are carried out without mortgages or any form of financing.
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“We cannot allow housing to become a luxury reserved for large international buyers while the local population struggles to access it (housing),” ERC MP Etna Estrems said in parliament.
Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya wants the regional governments of Spain’s 17 autonomous communities to have the powers to apply restrictions on foreign buyers.
They’ve proposed a regional authorisation system whereby foreigners planning to buy a home in Spain would first have to prove their eligibility by applying for a permit from the housing department of the region where the property is located.
ERC has suggested that such a system be incorporated into housing legislation currently being planned by the Socialist-led central government in Madrid.
If such a system were to be put in place, it would effectively mean that temporary residents in Spain may not be able to buy homes in the country, or would at least have to apply for a permit first, as five years of continuous residence are required before foreigners can get long-term or permanent residence.
The party headed by Oriol Junqueras has also stressed that a distinction should be made between EU companies and those with tax residence outside of the bloc in order to guarantee the free movement of capital of the internal market.
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In mid-January, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez made international headlines when he announced that his government was considering either a supertax on non-resident non-EU property buyers, or completely preventing them from buying Spanish homes, unless they can prove links to Spain.
Neither of these proposals has come to fruition, and critics have questioned how a 100 percent tax on the purchase of homes could be applied in practice, and whether non-resident non-EU buyers are truly playing a pivotal role in Spain’s housing crisis.
According to notary data, in 2023 third-country property buyers who don’t reside in Spain only represented 3 percent of the total number of transactions that year.
Nevertheless, the number of foreigners buying homes in Spain overall – EU and non-EU residents, EU and non-EU non-residents – made up 18 percent of the total in 2024, just under 1 in 5 of all transactions.
Barcelona city council has also approved plans to explore “legal tools” in order to ban investment funds and non-resident foreigners from buying property in the Catalan capital.
ERC cited Canada, Denmark and New Zealand as countries where limits have been put in place on the purchase of homes by non-residents.
However, their proposal goes one step further in trying to limit the property purchasing power of actual residents in Spain, albeit with less than five years of residency in Spain, whereas prior proposals applied to non-EU non-residents.
