Spain's prime minister said too many foreigners were buying investment homes. But efforts to discouraging them could hit the economy, experts said.

Spain is planning a raft of measures to address its brewing housing crisis, including an up to 100% tax on properties bought by people who are neither citizens nor residents of the European Union. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the plan this week to tackle housing affordability and high rents in the Southern European

Real estate in Spain is currently taxed at 10 per cent for new-build homes and 6 per cent for existing properties. Sanchez said the “unprecedented” measure was necessary to meet the country’s housing emergency, claiming non-EU residents bought 27,000 properties in Spain in 2023, “not to live in, but to make money from”.