For the past five months, the Spanish government has been looking for legal avenues to get rid of the golden visa that grants residency to non-EU nationals who buy a €500,000 Spanish home.
In July, they announced they also wanted to scrap all of the visa’s other investment options.
The scheme has been blamed for contributing to Spain’s property crisis by distorting prices and rents, but there are many who argue the move is more about politics than housing.
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What seems clear is that axing this controversial scheme which has given residency rights and many perks to some 15,000 third-country nationals is proving a lot harder than planned.
READ MORE: What the end of all of Spain’s golden visas means for foreigners
Much of it has to do with the left-wing coalition government’s lack of support in the Spanish Congress and thus ongoing difficulties in getting legislation passed.
Spanish Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez had initially planned to include an amendment relating to the cancellation of golden visas in the country’s new land law, known as the Ley del Suelo in Spanish, but it was withdrawn from the agenda in Congress as it did not have the necessary support to move forward.
Sánchez’s government then looked for other bills with which it could ‘slip in’ the golden visa amendment and in July it thought it had found the right match with the organic law on judicial efficiency measures and consumer protection.
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However, parliamentary sources have told Spanish daily El Independiente that this loophole is also proving problematic, as there are more than 1,000 amendments to this bill which are making its path through Spain’s different law-making branches a rocky one.
In fact, the golden visa annulment has reportedly not even been added yet to this bill on judicial efficiency and consumer protection.
As such, it is impossible to really know when, and if, Spain’s golden visa scheme will officially end.
For foreign investors and law firms specialising in golden visas, the race is on to get their hands on the last of these prized visas which give residency rights for holders even if they don’t actually live in the country (1 day a year in Spain is enough to renew).
Chinese investors in particular have been rushing to buy Spanish flats and houses in order to get Spanish and EU residency before the scheme officially ends.
In August, the author of a book on international golden visas claimed Spain’s decision to get rid of its scheme was just a vote-winning measure that won’t have an impact on the housing crisis and that “real estate lobbies” in other countries have previously ensured the schemes continue.
Portugal, for example, did initially suggest that it would get rid of its golden visa scheme but instead decided it would only scrap some of its investment options.
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