BoT 567

 

Business over Tapas

A digest of this week's Spanish financial, political and social news aimed primarily at Foreign Property Owners:

Prepared by Lenox Napier.  Consultant: José Antonio Sierra

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January 23 2025            Nº 567

 

Editorial:

Under a photo of the Minister of Homes and Urban Agenda and a logo that reads, ‘Housing: the Fifth Pillar of the Welfare State’, an article from Spanish Property Insight (the best English-language site on the subject in general) says ‘The Spanish government floats radical tax plan targeting British and other non-EU property buyers’.

They aren’t alone. Dozens of headlines say something similar. The Yahoo news site quoting some regional Brit newspaper, says ‘Warning to Brits after Spain reveals 'extreme' plans targeting them’ and The Telegraph says ‘Spain wants to kill off the British holiday home dream, here’s what you can do about it’. Some erroneous hyperbole quickly arrived from The EWN saying that ‘Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez shook the world with the ambiguous claim that his government planned to tax properties owned by non-EU nationals by 100 percent’.

My favourite one though comes from The Times, with a comic but despairing piece called ‘Spain’s anti-Brit tax is a reminder: no one wants to be driven out by immigrants’.

Ah yes, the British fear of Johnny Foreigner. No wonder they chose Brexit.

I imagine that well over half the people reading this are neither British nor American citizens hoping to move to Spain (although, for sure, it’s a good time to come).

Come quickly though, as Sánchez later refined his plan, to say that all sales to non-EU foreigners could be halted. "We will propose to ban these non-EU foreigners who are not residents, and their relatives, from buying houses in our country since they only do so to speculate", Sanchez said at a political rally in Plasencia, in western Spain, on Sunday.

For balance, know that all the Brits currently resident in Spain (around 300,000) or Americans from the USA (perhaps 64,000) are evidently a lot fewer in numbers than the 1,560,000 foreign EU citizens living here.

And there’s the key. I think we Brit/American commentators take an – perhaps understandably – parochial view of our importance to both the Spanish people and to their political concerns.

In reality, we are fairly small fry and, worse still, we live in small and relatively unimportant towns along the coast and islands. Andalucía has the most Brits (and that would be in Marbella, Mijas, Estepona or Níjar with around 3,000 in each), followed in order by the Valencian Community, the Canaries, Catalonia, the Balearics, Murcia and only then the Madrid Region. As a matter of fact, Pedro Sánchez when looking out of his window doesn’t see hoards of resident Brits tucking into an English breakfast on the Avenida de Castellana.

Madrid, by the way, has a population of 3,400,000. 

The point being – the Spanish government will be looking at its own citizens (especially those that vote) rather than at the foreigners who, Bless them, come here with full wallets to buy a home on the coast.   

In short, with this suggestion, the Government is looking elsewhere.

Two considerations here - the foreign vulture funds are the main buyers of property (to speculate usually as corporate landlords), and secondly, it’s the wealthy Latin Americans who are taking over choice properties particularly in Madrid (there are now well over a million of them living there: with some wealthy ones in the smarter areas, which is now known as el Miami de Europa, and with other poorer immigrants and perhaps even living without papers down in the workers’ neighbourhoods). Both issues being far more important than the plight of our British and American cousins who may have waited a bit too long…

Maybe Sánchez was reading a recent piece from El País which says ‘They are not guiris, they are the new Madrileños: today, 40% of the residents of the centre of the capital were born outside of Spain’.

The concern, then (at least in anglo quarters) is that the tax on buying a property could go up maybe later this year or next – or even to be closed off entirely – and this would certainly put some non-Schengen buyers (already concerned with the 90 in 180 day limit within the region) off. One way around would to be to rent and take out residence-papers, as the proposed surcharge is only for non-resident non-EU citizens. Or maybe there will be early elections, as La Razón hopes, and the PP will get in and smile on us foreigners once again.

From the Spanish point of view, the increase on property tax for non-EU foreign investors might be little more than wallpaper (there are a number of rather more useful proposals), but it shows that the Government is thinking of its citizens, for all that the conservative media runs articles about the inconvenience towards foreign-buyers.   

Or maybe not: ‘Closing the country to rich foreigners might win some votes, but it won't solve the real problem’ says El Economista sententiously.

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Housing:

‘Speculation, the main 'enemy' of housing. One in ten properties were bought as an investment in 2024. Why is it important? A chilling fact from the latest 'Fotocasa' report on the experience in buying and selling in 2024, which shows that 10% of applicants during the first six months of 2023 wanted to buy a property as an investment’. Item from LaSexta.

‘…Housing has become the most pressing concern for Spaniards, according to a December survey by the national polling centre, ranking higher than unemployment and migration. Look at the statistics and it’s clear why. The cost of renting in cities rose by around 30% between 2015 and 2022, forcing young workers to move to the outskirts of Madrid and Barcelona or settle for tiny, often barely habitable flats…’ says The Guardian here.

The Guardian returns to the fray here with: ‘A vicious circle: how the roof blew off Spain’s housing crisis. Rents spiral and neighbourhoods lose charm as cities report tourist flat boom and surge in housing speculation’.

In Spain, a large number of apartments are in the hands of banks and foreign investment management companies (known in Spain as ‘Vulture Funds’). These corporate landlords include CaixaBank, Blackstone and the Sareb. A full list is available at elDiario.es which says: ‘In Spain there are more than one million homes (1,046,188) in the hands of corporate landlords, that’s to say, 27,000 owners who own more than ten residential properties. On average, they hold 39 each, although only 10 of them have more than 200,000 properties. In total, they account for 4.3% of the total stock, a figure that rises to approximately 8.9% if the first homes where the owner lives are excluded...’

‘Barcelona City Council is considering banning foreigners from buying a home unless it is for their residence’. The ban, El Mundo admits, is aimed at the foreign investment funds.

The Majorca Daily Bulletin says ‘There’s little chance of the new property tax, which hits Brits hard, getting the green light’. Spanish Property Insight calls the proposal ‘Much ado about nothing’.

From Idealista here: ‘Spain's luxury market: 45,000+ homes for sale over €1 million. The Spanish market has more than 45,000 homes for over €1 million for sale’.  A statistic to frighten us all: ‘The average price of a luxury property on the Costa del Sol is revealed. In the most expensive town on the coast (Marbella), the price per square metre works out at an eye-watering 12,855.63 euros’ says Sur in English here.

Is that place for sale? Who owns this piece of land? I need a nota simple. Check for an answer with the Public Registry on their webpage at https://www.registro.es

‘Andalucía calls for “less talk and more construction” of housing despite more than 640,000 empty apartments across the region’ says elDiario.es here.  

From Sur in English here: ‘This Costa del Sol town will be ‘one of the most spectacular areas in southern Europe’, according to the mayor. Óscar Medina claims that plans to build a marina, almost 5,000 homes and a golf course in the Calaceite area of Torrox Costa will take a maximum of ten years decade to 'become a reality'’.

And old plan reborn? Bringing the Florida idea of ‘Senior Living Villages’ to Spain. ‘Now some Spanish entrepreneurs want to adapt the American model in Cantabria and thus create the first village with these characteristics for retirees in Spain…’ says As here.

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Tourism:

FITUR: ‘Andalucía will celebrate its best year for tourism ever at the international travel trade fair in Madrid. Twenty different destinations from across the region will have their own space on the huge exhibition stand, including the eight provinces, their main towns and relevant municipalities, as well as the World Heritage cities’. Sur in English reporting here.

From Majorca Daily Bulletin here: ‘Ryanair has decided to eliminate 12 routes and 800,000 seats from its 2025 Spain summer schedule, ceasing operations at two airports (Jerez and Valladolid) and reducing them at another five, due to the “lack of effectiveness” of the incentive plans and the “excessive fees” applied by airport authority Aena, which it accuses of a “monopoly”’. The Diario de Ibiza says that AENA accuses them of extortion.

The Almería City Council has modified the PGOU which now allows for campsites on protected land in the natural parks of both the Cabo de Gata and the Sierra Alhamilla.

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Finance:

The biggest political news of the week goes here under ‘Finance’. The Catalonian Junts party voted together with the PP (and Vox) on Wednesday against this year’s rise in pensions, putting the noses of some twelve million pensioners out of joint. The CCOO union called the decision of Junts (nominally, an ally of the PSOE) as ‘frivolous’. Other votes lost include a continuance on discounts on public transport and further aid to Valencia (post-DANA). 20Minutos has the story here. elDiario.es says that the January increase will be honoured, but February’s pension will return to 2024’s level.  

Causing some raised eyebrows… Forbes with ‘What It Means To Be Wealthy In Spain’. We read: ‘Spain repeatedly ranked highly on many travellers' favourite places in 2024, and several parts of the country are listed on many Best Places to Travel in 2025 lists by Bloomberg and CNTraveler. And in 2024, Spain was the third most searched country for Americans to visit or move to, after Canada and the U.K. (before Mexico and Italy). So, what about staying longer and making Spain your home? How much money would you need to live in Spain, and how much would you need to rent or buy a property? Here's what it means to be wealthy in Spain…’

From a study by the Universidad de Cartagena: ‘The foreign-born population residing in the Region of Murcia makes a positive net fiscal contribution and generated 35% of regional economic growth between 2005 and 2019. For every euro received in benefits, those born abroad pay 1.72 euros into the public treasury, a figure that exceeds by 30% the 1.32 euros contributed by those born in Spain residing in the Region and also higher than the 1.63 euros of those born abroad residing in the rest of Spain, according to the report’.

From Literary Rambles (a blog) here: ‘If you have ever wondered about data on Spain, the page of the National Statistical Office is a good place to visit; the CIA World Factbook is another option with a different focus. If you would like to have a closer look beyond average numbers that are often distorted by unequal distribution, the Catholic welfare organization Caritas offers regular updates on the dire conditions of life of nearly 20% of Spaniards, e.g. here (Spanish only). In general, the Spanish economy suffers from a dependence on tourism and agriculture. Both of them offer good earnings for owners, shareholders, etc. but low wages for most of the workforce – these are the sectors where the minimum wage is most prevalent, € 1,134 gross per month (40 h/week, 14 payments). And both of them are endangered by climate change in the form of unbearably hot summers and droughts…’ (Thanks to Brett)

Spain’s thirty wealthiest are featured at Antena3 here (with video).

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Politics:

‘Junts withdraws Congress support for Spanish government until 'crisis' is resolved. Carles Puigdemont suspends negotiations with PM Pedro Sánchez's Socialists until his demands are met. "We will not sit down to negotiate the budget. If there are decrees to approve, they cannot count on us," he said after meeting with the party leadership…’ Catalan News has the story here. The Junts Per Catalunya is a nominally conservative party, but is also keen on independence from Spain, so a lasting alliance with the PP/Vox would be impossible.

 “I congratulate the people of Gaza, who yesterday learned that they are going to receive more than 24 million euros in direct aid. The Generalitat Valenciana is going to receive zero direct aid from the Sánchez Government” Thus spoke the president of the Valencia Region Carlos Mazón to his parliament (with video) last week. From the Official PSOE website here (Nov 12): ‘The Government approves more aid and adds 14.373 million to rebuild Valencia. The Government gives the green light to 110 new measures for those affected by the catastrophe’. One way or another, Mazón can’t hold out much longer…

From the conservative ABC here: ‘Felipe González: “A good leader must connect with the mood of the people, as Javier Milei has done in Argentina”. A 'masterful' lesson from the former president of the Government in the Advanced Course on Talent and Political Leadership, chaired by María Dolores de Cospedal’.

We shall leave the main international news this week – that of the coronation of the new president of the USA – unless it affects Spain. This brings us to an item at elDiario.es here: ‘Vox on Trump's tariff threat: 'We'd like to have a president like him'’.

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Europe:

‘Sánchez imagines himself to be the leader of the international opposition to Trump before his inauguration. The President of the Government disdained "spending on Defence" at the recent summit with Spain’s ambassadors and put "climate security" before "strengthening arsenals", as requested by the USA’ says El Mundo here. Later, at the same conference, Felipe VI told the ambassadors that ‘he was in agreement with the idea of ​​multilateralism (‘an alliance of multiple countries pursuing a common goal’ says Wiki) that Sánchez had earlier defended. "Multilateralism is the best safeguard to avoid stumbling over the same stones of history; to defend a world defined by law, not by the law of the strongest. A world aware of the fractures and inequalities, and which only dialogue and cooperation can prevent from turning into conflicts," said the Monarch’.

‘Google decides not to follow the rules and refuses to comply with EU fact-checking law’ says El Chapuzas Informático here. The article explores the refusal to follow the EU’s rules by major tech-companies like Twitter, Meta and Google (owners of YouTube). It says, ‘These rules were initially voluntary, starting with the code of good practices on misinformation, but they will soon become mandatory. When this happens, we will see how Google ends up being penalized for not following the rules. In the meantime, X (i.e. Twitter) and Meta will continue with their plan to use community notes to handle content moderation’.

From The Mirror here: ‘France and Portugal to follow Spain's crushing blow to Brits dreaming of life in the sun’. My Goodness… it’s catching!

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Health:

‘85% of the population in Spain depends exclusively on public health care to meet their health needs. The remaining 15%, according to the European Health Survey in Spain (EES), have mixed coverage. But the differences between autonomous communities are notable. While in Extremadura, Cantabria or Melilla practically the entire population depends solely on public health care; in the Balearic Islands, 30.5% enjoy public and private coverage simultaneously, in Catalonia, 25% and in Madrid, 23.9%...’

However, we read that public health expenditure is way below the European average:

‘…Specifically, in 2021, the last year for which data is available, per capita health expenditure (both public and private) amounted to 2,769 euros, 22 percent below the EU average. This is not a temporary gap, “but rather one that persists over time,” despite the increase in expenditure recorded in recent years’. The article continues, ‘…among the European countries with the largest population size, Spain is the one with the lowest per capita health expenditure, with very marked differences compared to countries such as France (4,200 euros) or Germany (5,156 euros). More at La Economía de la Salud here.

Spain temporarily bans outdoor chicken farming due to the risk of bird flu.

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Corruption:

‘A cyber-attack exposes the identity of 160,000 Civil Guards, military personnel and Defence personnel. The Government is investigating the massive data leak and whether it is related to the leak of a medical supplier from last April’. The story at El Nacional.

There’s an interesting tension between the judges keen to indict the PSOE-appointed Attorney General Álvaro García Ortiz for leaking a WhatsApp to the media about Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s boyfriend Alberto González Amador, and the allegedly improper activities of that worthy, who will find himself in court standing as an ‘accused’ early next month. Indeed, as El País reports on Wednesday, ‘The Bar Association accuses Judge Hurtado of omitting evidence that exonerates the Attorney General in the case of Ayuso's boyfriend. García Ortiz's defence asks for his statement to be suspended, and for the Madrid president's partner and more journalists who were aware of the agreement to be summoned beforehand’. The outcome of all of this will have a large effect on both the PSOE and Conservative morale.

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Courts:

The acusación popular in law – where someone entirely unconnected with a court-case can take out his own accusation, and thus have access to the intricacies of the claim (sometimes to be able to leak protected information to the media … sometimes used by insurance companies to influence judicial decisions … sometimes by opposing political parties to promote the issue at hand) is a peculiarly Spanish institution which doesn’t exist in any other European country except Andorra. 

It is used for political ends, and thus we read of the regular participation of Manos Limpias, Abogados Cristianos, HazteOir (and other unsavoury organisations). Wiki says it was originally introduced, in 1812, to provide an independent claim against corrupt judges and magistrates. The system survives – with its broader use – in the Spanish Constitution.

Ignacio Escolar, the editor of elDiario.es, writes about this here: He says ‘Spanish justice is strange. Different from that of Europe. It has several things that differentiate it from all the others. And among them stands out a very basic one – who is it who can accuse someone of a crime in a criminal process. In almost all the democratic world, with some nuances, criminal accusation is a monopoly of the State. The leading voice when it comes to asking people to go to jail – almost always as a soloist – is the Public Prosecutor's Office: a public and professional institution that is in charge of pursuing crimes before the courts. Not in Spain. Here we have innovated. We have not only the Public Prosecutor's Office but two other types of accusations: the private accusation – that is, the alleged victim – and the popular accusation – that is, anyone who happens to be passing by. It is strange. It is complex. But it is important to understand the subject well before giving an opinion.

In all of Europe, only in Spain and Andorra (which copied our idea) does the popular accusation exist. Any citizen or organization with no connection to the crime can appear before a court as another accuser to request imprisonment against a third party, to request evidence, to appear in court, to question the accused or even to appeal the sentence. This only happens here…’ El País here: ‘The agony of the popular accusation: in the last forty years, they have contributed nothing beyond what the prosecution has been able to do’.

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Media:

From Good Strategy here (thanks to Colin for this one): ‘The right in Spain offers no realistic alternatives in terms of coherent and cohesive policies, principles and initiatives. They offer no leadership, ideas or statesmanship. Their opposition is not based on respectable alternatives but on lies, defamation and smears.

Every day that passes, the Spanish political system and the effective governance of Spain are being put under tremendous pressure by right-wing and extreme right political parties, extreme right-wing pressure groups, the corrupt and corrupting media, media-oriented agitators and spreaders of misinformation and lies, and certain powerful elements of the judiciary, including Judges who clearly exceed the limits of what is their power and influence. Then, we can add to this group the reactionary, repugnant and hypocritical political agitators in the Catholic Church…’

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Various:

A visa to move to Spain can be obtained, apparently, from a company called VFS-Global with offices in many capital cities worldwide. AXA-Schengen has the story about this agency (in English), which cooperates with the Spanish (or for that matter, any other nation’s) authorities to organise the paperwork. Wiki gives the company a poor review.

An interesting article in El Confidencial explores the world of the 192,000 Chinese living in Spain, and why – with the evident initial language problems – they tend towards opening or working in either bars or bazaars (‘it’s easy, all you need to do is point and go ‘fondo derecha’ says the tiktoker Jia Junkin whimsically). Yet while the Chinese are coming, another nationality is now leaving. From Xataca here: ‘Spain welcomed thousands of Romanians back in the 2000s: now they are returning to Romania, leaving a gap in the labour market’.

While the FITUR is on in Madrid, aimed at attracting still more visitors to this great country, earlier this week over in Barcelona it was time for the ICE (originally International Casino Exposition) gaming fair (here) with 600 participating companies who are apparently concerned about the ‘need to attract young people so that the industry does not die’. That’s right, go to your nearest gaming (or gambling) saloon right now and, as Trump himself might say, ‘Spend, baby, Spend!’ From Catalan News here: ‘ICE gaming fair in Barcelona 'normalizes addictive behaviours,' the health ministry says’.

Spain has introduced its own ChatGPT called Alia, developed by the Government according to El Economista here. It’s an open-sourced AI in castellano and the other co-official languages.  

The fact-checker Newtral says ‘Spain is not “at the tail end of Europe” in GDP per capita as Feijóo says’ (at 25,620€, we lie exactly half-way down).

The Olive Press reports that ‘Trump fires Spanish chef José Andrés from the White House for ‘not being aligned with MAGA’’.

‘It used to be one of the prettiest fishing villages in Spain, but now they have painted it grey to scare away tourists. They preferred to paint the town grey so that tourists would see it as ugly and not go’. Trendencias writes about Bocacangrejo in Tenerife.

A footnote to history: the Spanish communists fighting for the Soviets interned in a Finnish prisoner-of-war camp between 1941 and 1943. 

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See Spain:

La Casa de Pilatos (Seville) – the Palace you have to visit for tiles says Mapping Spain.

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Letters:

Extinction Internet

Already thinking about 'disconnecting' and reverting to an old information source.

At least you can rely on a bloke in the pub.

Liz

Hi Lenox... thanks for this. An entertaining summary of what's wrong with the internet right now. As an optimist, I'm inclined to agree with Geert Lovink, that people will vote with their feet, and leave Twitter & co. to like-minded conspiracy nuts. Personally, I think a bigger threat to democracy is fake news, and the unregulated media. Fox News by trashing Biden's presidency with lies and disinformation, virtually handed the US presidency to Trump. And according to Pew Research, 93% of Republicans get their political views from Fox News! It's no better in the UK... 90% of newspaper sold are published by Tory donors like the Barclays, Rothermeres and Desmonds. And as we saw with Brexit, they are no strangers to lies and disinformation.

Astronautilus

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Finally:

Café Quijano - Sabes qué te digo, on YouTube here.