Good - even as EU citizen from a "wealthier" country who also considered buying an apartment in Spain I felt put off by the sheer amount of non-EU citizens taking the easy and cheap route out, coming over to sunny, walkable and high quality of life Spain with good public health system and showing their excitement about the "low prices" - which aren't even that low by EU means, at least for locals working local jobs. A friend advised me last March to "buy an apartment before the flood / US election" - but no, I'm not buying into the hype. Fix your political issues overseas or be welcome by paying a fair premium adjusted to the higher income and earn respect by becoming part of the community / learning some Spanish. There needs to be some entry barrier / incentive / application process. In general I can understand why the Spaniards resist. Of course debatable whether it should be all non-EU or simply a list of significantly wealthier countries / countries with high wealth gap and oligarch investors that pay the higher entrance fee.
Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents
251–260 of 282 posts
Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
where exactly does a house make no return, especially in say last decade/15 years? I bought three houses in the last 20 years, one doubled, one up 70% and one 40% (still occupying it)
Do you not see how insane it is to at once 1) demand cheap housing and 2) demand it increases in price at breakneck pace?
I am not demanding cheap housing, I was only commenting on so you own a house, it makes basically no return, now what?
Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents
#253Canada should follow suit
They did but they left so many loopholes that was it was basically pointless. Foreigners simply started making an incorporation or using any of the quick "PR" schemes to be able to purchase a property.
Many people will even pool money from the multiple families if need be to purchase residence and then renting it to Canadian citizens for profit or putting on AirBnb.
Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cities are rarely constrained by the willingness of someone to build housing, it’s generally more an issue of being allowed to build housing.
Cities typically don’t have draconian taxes on real estate.
~0.1% of real estate. If the major concern is these rules change nothing then that applies to both upsides and downsides.
Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
Too much regulation or greedy landlords depending on your political persuasion.
There's never been a time when people were not greedy. The "suddenly, people started being greedy" meme doesn't make much sense.
The point of the comment was not to present a full description of either position. It was to point out that everybody here is just going to reflexively provide their partisan answers to this question.
Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents
#256so is there any actual evidence that foreign home ownership is causing meaningful housing price inflation in Spain? or is this just uninformed pandering like it is in the US
In my hometown, Palma, in Mallorca, I live in a street where 50% of houses are owned by foreign people or investors/airbnb. The neighborhood is not 50% but not that low.
The problem? Prices skyrocketed, like a 10x in 10 years (for big houses, small houses 4x). I hear more english/german/sweedish than spanish (or catalan) in my dog walks.
Besides economic implications (a lot for local people trying to find places to live), there are cultural/social implications. The neighborhood used to be a community, where people were open to help and share. Now this is changing and evolving into an individualist neighborhood.
Our oficial language is being minoritized even more. This doesn't seem like the neighborhood we used to live on.
Not everything is economy. The intangible heritage is something we should take care more.
Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
If India had 25% white EU members similar to Sweden having 25% migration background members (mostly from Africa or the Middle East), perhaps Indians would get a tiny bit protectionist. The accusation that locals are reluctant to share resources is offensive at this point. There is no space and people can barely afford to pay rents. Meanwhile there are "golden visas" to Portugal or Cyprus where rich Chinese can gain e…
What does whiteness have to do with anything?? Indians are protectionist, with regards to immigration from poorer countries like Bangladesh.
Umm what? India has a lower per capita income and worse quality of life than Bangladesh.
https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/bangladesh/indi...
Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents
#258Just tax land value.
- Let the owner pick a land value freely
- Calculate land tax based on that
- If someone offers the owner more than the value they picked, they have to sell
:-P
Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
> every foreigner buying a house still results in 1 less house for Spaniards In a very limited scope, sure. What that foreign capital also does is lower risk and thus capital costs for development and improvement. (In the event of a limited crisis, for lenders as well.) Whether the net effect goes one way or another is more complicated than what you describe. Put another way, if foreigners could only buy unbuilt unit…
> Put another way, if foreigners could only buy unbuilt units, would you still say they're resulting in fewer houses for Spaniards? Do the countries shunned by foreign investors have affordable housing? Exactly, and to further drive the point home the real estate investments driven by foreign investment are targeting entirely different markets, such as luxury homes and tourism, whereas the complains about lack of acc…
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Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
A theoretical argument was countered with an assertion - it's plausible that investment -> lower risk, but there is no reasoning to get "foreign investment is focused on X area".
"What that foreign capital also does is lower risk and thus capital costs for development and improvement." Not a theoretical argument. An assertion.
I mean, I can see a reason provided. Isn't that the whole point of foreign direct investing? That's more than an assertion - that's why I call it a theoretical argument. There's no need to debate semantics.