MADRID — Spain is planning a raft of measures to address its brewing housing crisis, including an up to 100% tax on properties bought by non-European Union residents.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the plan this week to tackle housing affordability and high rents in the Southern European nation. He said that the overall goal was to provide “more housing, better regulation and greater aid.”
“The West faces a decisive challenge: To not become a society divided into two classes, the rich landlords and the poor tenants,” Sánchez said as he announced the plan.
However, it remains unclear if the plan put forth by Sánchez’s minority coalition will pass in parliament. Here’s a look at what’s happening:
Like most rich countries, Spain is in the throes of a growing housing affordability problem. Skyrocketing rents are particularly acute in cities like Barcelona and Madrid, where incomes have failed to keep up, especially for young people. Housing prices are also steadily rising, especially in cities and coastal areas.
Rental prices have also been driven up by short-term contracts mainly offered for tourists. Spain sees more tourists than almost any country in the world, having received more than 88.5 million visitors in 2024. Tourism is one of the country’s key economic drivers.
The negative aspects of mass tourism have caused tension at times between visitors and residents concerned about rising costs, the proliferation of short-term rentals on platforms like Airbnb, and water supplies that can be stretched in some parts of the country, including the Canary and Balearic Islands.
Last year, protesters took to the streets on various occasions across the country to express their frustrations about the growth of tourism and high ren