Discover the latest news about the Spanish Golden Visa. This visa, which offers the possibility of residency to foreigners investing in a property valued at 500,000 euros or more, now includes updated criteria and conditions that Pinnacle Spain, with its team of Spanish home finders, can help you understand and take advantage of.
The Congress of Deputies is already processing the Sumar Bill to modify the Golden Visa, the system that gives non-EU foreigners a residence permit in exchange for investments in Spain. The President of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, announced last April 8 that he would eliminate the possibility that allows foreigners to obtain the visa for buying a property in Spain for, at least, 500,000 euros, with the aim of cooling the prices of the real estate market.
The new text being processed by the Lower House already eliminates from the Law to support entrepreneurs and their internationalization the possibility for foreigners to obtain a visa for buying a property in Spain, but it also brings as a novelty the veto to invest in projects that make the market more expensive.
Specifically, the proposed reform of the law maintains that foreigners, in exchange for the visa, may invest in a business project to be developed in Spain and which is considered and accredited as being of general interest, for which the creation of jobs, its socioeconomic impact or its contribution to scientific or technological innovation will be assessed. However, it adds for the first time that the investment “may not have an inflationary effect on housing in the geographical area in which it is intended to be carried out”.
To avoid this, the law will empower the Autonomous Regions, the competent bodies in housing matters, to issue a binding report (i.e., one that must be complied with) for the visa granting dossier.
Investment in shares or deposits
On the other hand, the proposal also maintains that it will be possible to obtain the permit with an investment equal or superior to two million euros in Spanish public debt securities, or of one million euros in shares or social participations of Spanish companies, or bank deposits in Spanish financial entities.
The proposal justifies that allowing the purchase of housing of 500,000 euros or more to obtain the visa entails a high risk of money laundering as the origin of the money is unknown and stresses the market by buying the properties above the price.
“In the current context, the conjunction of these real estate investments to obtain residence permits, together with other elements that stress the market, such as the unstoppable boom of tourist apartments or the rise in interest rates, pose a serious threat to access to housing for middle and low incomes,” justifies the text.
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