Spain Latest Country to Pull its Golden Visa Program

May 2, 2024 — Unintended consequences – they come with the best of ideas. Spain’s Golden Visa program, where foreigners could get extended resident visas for purchasing real estate worth at least 500,000 Euros, is now ending. Over 14,000 people from non-European countries had taken advantage of the program. Spain joins Portugal in shutting down the real estate portion of its Golden Visa programs (Portugal modified its last fall). Greece is modifying what it offers, increasing the investment to 800,000 Euros from 500,000 in Athens and on popular islands like Mykonos.

The unintended consequences are similar to what is happening to real estate all over the world. Many buyers from China and Russia and other countries took advantage to launder some of their money, evade taxes, invest a hot real estate market, and gain long term residency in an attractive country. The result was to drive up property prices in the most desirable cities and areas, making them unaffordable for residents of the host countries. Affordable housing became harder to get, and governments realized that the advantage of attracting capital was not worth the harm to its own citizens. The residency programs were unpopular among the Portuguese population.