House buyers offered residency in Spain
Spain is to offer foreigners residency permits if they buy houses worth more than 160,000 euros (£128,000) as part of an attempt to reduce the country’s huge number of unsold homes.
Trade Ministry secretary Jaime Garcia-Legaz said the plan, expected to be approved in the coming weeks, would be aimed principally at Chinese and Russians as the domestic demand was stagnant and showed no sign of improving. Spain has more than 700,000 unsold houses following the collapse of its property market in 2008.
The country’s economy is struggling and is currently in recession with 25 per cent unemployment. Thousands of houses have been repossessed by banks and their owners evicted because they cannot pay their mortgages. The government last week approved a decree under which evictions would be suspended for two years in specific cases of extreme need.