27 November, 2013

By VIVA Team

Spain's new Golden Visa has attracted wealthy non-EU investors to its property market

Introduced on October 1st for non-EU nationals keen on acquiring residency and property in Spain, the country’s ‘Golden Visa’ has prompted a massive increase in interest in Spanish property.

Potential buyers from the Middle East in particular have had their heads turned, with recent statistics from Taylor Wimpey España showing a 2,500 per cent increase in enquiries in the past 12 months…The new stipulations for non-EU nationals state that any foreign investor who spends at least 500,000 euros on Spanish property is then eligible for a residency permit. Wealthy onlookers from Russia, the Middle East, China and India have been particularly attracted to this new law, largely because Spanish residency opens a number of other doors for non-EU nationals, namely access to healthcare, education and the Schengen travel arrangement.

Spain’s Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, introduced the measure earlier this year in the hope that it would attract further foreign investment in Spain’s property market. Originally the threshold was going to be set much lower, but the figure of 500,000 euros was agreed upon and has since proven a good benchmark: interest is certainly up among overseas investors.

More generally, figures from the Spanish Tourism Ministry have revealed that more than eight million overseas tourists visited Spain in August this year alone – a record. Brits, as ever, were the most popular nationality, but an impressive 30 per cent more Russians flocked to Spain in August, totalling some 838,876 individuals.

“We have already seen a staggering 2,500 per cent increase in Middle Eastern buyers this year versus the same period in 2012, and a 190 per cent increase in buyers from Russia and Lithuania,” Marc Pritchard, Sales and Marketing Manager for Taylor Wimpey España, told the Daily Telegraph.

The ‘Golden Visa’ ruling has no doubt played its part in boosting these figures, as has Spain’s encouraging economic performance in the second and third quarters of 2013: the country has pulled clear from recession, unemployment is no longer rising, the export industry is booming and property prices, having bottomed out, have stabilised and begun to rise in some areas.

No area epitomises renewed Spanish confidence more than the Costa del Sol, which has always boasted the most complete investment, tourism and holiday home package among Spain’s eclectic selection of regions. It unarguably boasts the widest property choice, with a portfolio to suit all budgets and tastes, while its infrastructure, accessibility, climate and alluring mixture of cultures is second-to-none.