INTERVIEW: 'Spain's golden visa will return with a change of government'

To mark a month since Spain cancelled its golden visa, The Local spoke to immigration lawyers about what it's meant for some of their foreign clients, the alternatives and how it may only be a matter of time before this residency option returns.

As of April 3rd 2025, the golden visa ceased to be an option for those wanting to gain residency in Spain by either buying property worth €500,000, investing €1 million in shares in Spanish companies, €2 million in government bonds, or transferring €1 million to a Spanish bank account.

Now that this visa option is no more, what are the consequences? Have affluent non-EU nationals been left disappointed because they missed the deadline? And how are those who missed out now looking to pursue Spanish residency?

The Local Spain spoke to three lawyers who specialised in the Spanish golden visa to see what’s happened since.

OPINION: End of Spain's golden visa is a reminder that Brexit drawbacks continue

Mark McMillan from Sun Lawyers said: “We rushed the last-minute visas through and quite a few with €1,000,000 deposited in Spanish bank accounts due to the time taken to process property purchases”.

“The disappointment with regards to the golden visa came from people who bought together with their spouses but could not apply due to their type of marital regime (separation of assets, which is the norm in the UK) and not having bought real estate for the mandatory €500,000€ each or at least in one sole name,” McMillan revealed.

Immigration lawyer Mayrem Essadik, head of Marfour Law, was relieved that she managed to submit golden visa applications for all her clients before the deadline, but “many have been forced to make the one-million-euro investment because their chosen properties are not yet ready to complete the process of purchase,” she told The Local Spain.

“We are very disappointed, as we believed that alternative investment options would remain available. In the end, many clients were left with no choice but to go with the €1 million bank investment – something that was not part of the original draft of the law,” she added.

The primary reason given by the Spanish government for scrapping the golden visa scheme was the alleged impact wealthy foreigners have been having on Spain's housing market by buying up expensive homes locals couldn't afford and thus driving up prices, hence why the Barcelona-based lawyer can't understand why the golden visa's financial investment options have been cancelled as well.

Essadik also highlighted another group of people who just missed out on Spain's golden visa – those who had bought off plan and whose properties were not yet complete. “We have cases of clients who purchased properties in 2023, for example, but since the property won’t be ready until June 2025, they have been affected. Although the purchase was already underway, they will not be able to qualify in time for the golden visa. This is the sad situation.”

Maria Luisa de Castro from CostaLuz Lawyers told The Local she has several clients who missed out on the golden visa because they applied too late. “Many clients contacted us too late, and given the uncertainty and tight deadlines, we chose not to take risks with timing. Unfortunately, some clients were hoping to benefit from the golden visa's advantage of not becoming tax residents in Spain, but they didn't manage to complete their property purchases in time”.

Spain's visado de oro was one of the best residency options as it allowed holders to spend less than 183 days in Spain while still holding onto residency, and it didn’t require them to become tax residents either.

So now that the deadline has passed, what type of visa options are foreigners looking at to move to Spain?

“The non-lucrative visa (NLV) has clearly become the preferred option for many clients now,” explained de Castro.

“Many clients would have much preferred the golden visa, mainly for tax reasons. It offered them the flexibility to live in Spain without becoming tax residents — something the NLV does not allow,” she added.

She also expressed that there’s a growing interest in the digital nomad visa (DNV), “although it requires meeting more specific conditions that not everyone can satisfy”.

McMillan also believes that a lot of foreigners with that kind of capital needed for the golden visa have businesses or are working professionals, meaning that the DNV option open to them.

“The DNV route for people working remotely for foreign companies opens the way for access to the "Beckham's Law" (regimen especial aplicable a los trabajadores desplazados a territorio español) at a flat 24 percent tax on their salaried/invoiced incomes as a displaced worker which finally could be an extremely lucrative and tax-efficient way to live in Spain".

McMillan is referring to the fact that if you work for a company abroad and get the DNV (not those who are self-employed) you may be able to benefit from the Beckham law, which means you can pay a flat tax rate of 24 percent instead of on a sliding scale.

“I am converting many golden visas to DNVs and advising a lot of people on coordinating the right setup to meet the criteria,” he explained. “This is opening up an excellent alternative”.

Nevertheless, Essadik believes that there fewer legal solutions to offer people who wish to move to Spain, and that “the process is becoming less accessible overall”.

The general consensus so far among property experts say that the abolishment of the golden visa won’t have any impact on the general property market, nor on the luxury real estate sector.

De Castro of CostaLuz Lawyers agrees with this view, believing that cancelling the golden visa will help Spain's housing crisis at all and believes it was a political decision.

"The golden visa was not responsible for Spain’s housing problems, and its cancellation has done nothing to solve them," she explained.

"I'm convinced that once there is a change of government, the golden visa – or a similar programme – will return."

Spain's golden visa was initially introduced by the right-wing Popular Party government of Mariano Rajoy in 2013 as a means of drawing international investments when the country was in the midst of an economic crisis.

The PP's current leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo has referred to Pedro Sánchez's decision to cancel the golden visa as a "smokescreen" to help "cover up" his "incompetence" vis-à-vis housing policy.

thelocal

INTERVIEW: 'Spain's golden visa will return with a change of government'