Spain gives residency permits for foreign house buyers

Tommygun2000

silverchair wrote: »

"In a further attempt to boost the housing market, the trade ministry said on Monday that it would offer residency permits to foreigners who buy houses for more than 160,000 euros.

The initiative is aimed at Chinese and Russian buyers in particular, according to the ministry. There is an overhang of 700,000 unsold properties in Spain."


more info:




Any thoughts on this?

How much has the house price crash been in Spain? I think those in the 70% club would have been on the ball.

But by all accounts there are more falls yet.

ognum

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

What does 160 k euro buy in Spain. Both in the major towns and on the "costas" - I cannot see a Russian ma ff ia or Chinese triad parvenu member wanting to live in the countryside.

Ireland and Portugal already have similar arrangements, as does Switzerland and the little tax haven states of Europe. They however are after the independently wealthy seeking a secure alternative to their mother/father land.

http://www.independent.ie/business/european/spain-to-offer-residency-deal-for-foreign-house-buyers-3300350.html

I don't for a minute believe that those who buy will live in the house they buy, it is simply a means of access to living anywhere in the EU!

Tommygun2000

ognum wrote: »

I don't for a minute believe that those who buy will live in the house they buy, it is simply a means of access to living anywhere in the EU!

What will they do with it then? No one has enough money rent it off them, or they would buy another place they are almost giving away properties now.

Surely if they have 160K to throw away they are not that bothered about getting access to the EU? And if they were interested there are cheaper ways of doing it.

Spirit_2

Judging by the impact this has had in Cyprus this could be a solution for Spain. Quite a quick win for housing . Creating lots of job opportunities for eatern europeans in Spain to cater for wealthy Russians.

Afterall if your traditional markets dry up it makes sense to try new ones.

I do think the free EU ticket is the attraction, and I am not sure morally this is right.

tonycottee

ognum wrote: »

Buy a house in Spain if you are Chinese, Indian, etc and you can work/live anywhere in the EU including the UK.

That's not true. Just because you have Spanish residency, it doesn't allow you access into the UK. Fortunately we didn't sign up to the schengen agreement.

Tommygun2000

As I said, if someone has 160K to spend on getting entry into an EU country there are cheaper options, where you do not have all the worry and ongoing expenses of buying a property that is still falling in value.

ttoli

Jonbvn wrote: »

Cyprus (Greek part) has been doing something similar since it joined the EU.

Minimum investment is 500,000 Euros.

ognum

tonycottee wrote: »

That's not true. Just because you have Spanish residency, it doesn't allow you access into the UK. Fortunately we didn't sign up to the schengen agreement.

Thank you for that information which I wasn't aware of

Jonbvn

ttoli wrote: »

Minimum investment is 500,000 Euros.

Has recently been reduced to €300k.

http://www.bestcyprusproperties.com/Immigration-and-Visa-Issues-[Non-EU]/pageid-1801/

Jonbvn

misskool wrote: »

Are residency permits transferable if you are non-EU citizen?

Once you are inside the Schengen area it doesn't matter. There are no passport checks between Schengen Area countries.

As pointed out by other posters, the UK and Ireland are NOT in the Schengen scheme.