Spain Seeks to Curb Foreign Buyers Amid Growing Housing Crisis
The Spanish government is moving to rein in real estate purchases by foreigners and curb the spread of short-term rentals, part of a series of measures that officials say are necessary to alleviate a painful housing crunch that has rapidly become one of the worst in Europe.Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said on Wednesday that his government would seek a groundbreaking 100 percent tax on real-estate purchases by buyers outside the European Union, part of a broader plan that he announced last week to try to quell anger and protests in cities across Spain over a lack of affordable housing.He went even further on Sunday when he floated an outright ban on foreign purchases of real estate in Spain, but later backed off.Americans have grappled with an affordable housing crisis for years, and now Europe’s major cities are struggling with a similar problem.
Housing has become the largest household expense across the European Union, where rents have increased an average of nearly 20 percent over the past decade, and house prices have jumped nearly 50 percent, twice the rate of average household incomes.The intensity varies by country, but they have common threads, including the commodification of housing and the rise of short-term rental platforms like Airbnb, as well as the so-called golden visa programs in Spain and neighboring countries that drew buyers who snapped up housing in exchange for a visa.Adding to the strain was a sharp decline in housing construction across Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove up prices for building materials and energy.High interest rates by the European Central Bank, meant to quell inflation, buffeted real-estate markets across Europe.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
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