Spain moves to STOP Britons buying homes in the country as it announces huge new financial penalty to be imposed on them

The Spanish government has unveiled drastic reforms that will impact Britons’ ability to buy homes, as the country desperately tries to tackle its mounting housing crisis.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez today announced a new package of twelve measures that the government hopes will convince residents angry about the lack of available housing.

One controversial proposal is the introduction of a tax on non-EU citizens who buy homes in the country and who do not already live in Spain.

The government proposed imposing a tax on foreigners, including Britons increase the amount paid when purchasing a home up to 100 percent of the property’s value.

Home buyers in Spain are currently expected to pay fees and taxes worth between 10 and 12 percent of the price of the house, depending on where it is located.

Sanchez said the new rate would help “prioritize the availability of housing for residents.”

He noted that in 2023 alone, non-residents from outside the EU bought 27,000 houses and flats in Spain, “not to live in them, but mainly to speculate.”

He said this is “something that, in the context of the shortages we are experiencing, we cannot afford.”

Spain has seen mass demonstrations increase year on year, with aggrieved locals decrying the housing shortage, while opportunists buy up homes and rent them to holidaymakers, or leave them empty for most of the year.

Residence in Spain is open to British nationals and other non-EU citizens wishing to stay for more than 90 days, subject to fees and proof of financial stability.

Could the plans have consequences for you? Send your response by email to rory.tingle@mailonline.co.uk

Sanchez’s radical plan to tackle the housing crisis was presented today, with twelve measures aimed at reforming the construction sector, guaranteeing affordable rental housing and offering incentives to those who follow rental guidelines.

This includes the transfer of land to a new social housing agency that the government says will be used to build thousands of new affordable rental homes.

Sanchez said the company will begin integrating more than 30,000 Sareb homes in the first half of this year, including about 13,000 immediately.

The government also hopes to ‘rehabilitate’ vacant properties for additional ‘affordable rent’, and offer incentives to those who renovate apartments and make them available for longer periods of time.

It hopes that an income tax exemption for owners who rent out their homes according to the ‘Reference Price Index’ will promote a healthier rental ecosystem.

In a bid to ensure Spaniards gain access to homes before wealthy non-EU citizens, the proposals also include a measure to ‘restrict’ the purchase of homes by people who ‘don’t live in our country’.

This should be strengthened with regulations on seasonal rental fraud, discouraging those illegally trying to make the most of Spain’s lucrative tourist season.

‘The purpose of all these measures is clear. What we want is to protect citizens and find a better balance between tourism and investment, two key activities for our economy,” Sánchez said at the announcement.

“And logically also access to housing, which is a constitutional right of the people and a legitimate goal of our government when we say we want to make it the fifth pillar of the welfare state.”

Sanchez assured that the increased power given to the state to purchase real estate and land will be backed by a guarantee that ensures that all state-built housing remains public property indefinitely.

The aim of the ambitious plan is that “whatever is built and repaired with public money will always remain the property of the Spanish people and will not end up in the hands of vulture funds,” he emphasized.

The government hopes to mobilize around €6 billion in ICO loans and guarantees to help build a further 25,000 new homes.

While the government itself is building more housing, it is also targeting private companies involved in unsustainable rental practices.

Sánchez stressed the need to prioritize residential use over tourism, promising to implement tax reform “so that tourist apartments are taxed as they are: a business.”

He said that “it’s not fair that those who have three, four, five short-term rental apartments pay less in taxes than hotels or workers.”

Jaume Collboni, the mayor of Barcelona, ​​set a precedent with the radical decision to abolish all short-term apartment rentals for tourists from November 2028.

Companies like Airbnb have long been in the crosshairs of anti-tourism protesters, with residents fearing they are being priced out of their homes by the glut of property owners renting out their homes for huge fees.

During the six months to the end of June last year, 42.5 million international visitors traveled to the country during the busy summer period.

According to Spanish data agency INE, June alone registered a 12% increase to 9 million as the busier summer period picks up.

Data shows that visitors are increasingly choosing to stay in rental apartments rather than hotels, increasing demand for apartments and encouraging landlords to buy up properties at the expense of residents.

The number of visitors to Spain staying in this type of accommodation in the first half of the year increased by 30%, while the number of visitors staying in hotels increased by 11%.

The first major protest in Alicante took place last July, with hundreds of residents taking to the streets to express their concerns about overtourism.

Dozens of residents met in the central Plaza Toros with banners and flags reading “Leave our neighborhoods,” “our house is not the patio of gringos” and “f*** AirBnB,” amid fears that locals priced out of their homes and trapped. in unstable jobs serving foreign visitors.

Salva, a spokesperson for the organizing group, told MailOnline: ‘It is the administrations (municipality council, autonomous community, central government) that must take measures to put the needs of the people living in the city at the forefront, compared to the needs of the people living in the city. wishes of those who visit the city.

‘We hope that the demonstration is the first step so that more people feel that it is legitimate to demand the right to live with dignity in our city, and to build together a neighborhood movement that says Alicante is not for sale .’

Earlier this month, Barcelona residents shockingly fired water pistols at tourists dining on a street popular with foreign visitors.

Under the heading ‘Enough! Let’s set limits on tourism’, according to police, some 2,800 people marched along a Barcelona waterfront neighborhood to demand a new economic model that would reduce the millions of tourists who visit every year.

Rising housing costs in Barcelona, ​​which have risen by 68 percent in the past decade, are one of the main issues facing the movement, along with the effects of tourism on local trade and working conditions in the city of 1.6 million inhabitants.

According to real estate website Idealista, rents rose by 18% in June compared to a year earlier in tourist cities such as Barcelona and Madrid.

Could you be affected by the plans? Send your response by email to rory.tingle@mailonline.co.uk