Spain is planning to impose a tax of up to 100% on the value of properties bought by non-residents from countries outside the EU, such as the UK. Announcing the move, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the “unprecedented” measure was necessary to meet the country’s housing emergency. “The West faces a decisive challenge: To not become a society divided into two classes, the rich landlords and poor tenants,” he said. Non-EU residents bought 27,000 properties in Spain in 2023, he told an economic forum in Madrid, “not to live in” but “to make money from them”. “Which, in the context of shortage that we are in, [we] obviously cannot allow,” he added. The move was designed to prioritise available homes for residents, the Spanish prime minister said. Sánchez did not
