The net migration rate of Spain changed its course mainly due to the great inflow of foreigners that move to reside in the Mediterranean country. Spain’s immigration flow slowed down after the 2008 financial crisis, albeit the number of foreigners that opted to change their residence saw a significant growth in the last years. In 2023, Moroccans ranked first as the foreign nationality residing Spain, followed by people from Romania and the Colombians.
In recent years, the European Union confronted a rising number of refugees arriving from the Middle East and Africa. Migration figures show that Germany accommodated approximately 15 million foreign-born citizens, ranking it as the country that most hosted immigrants in Europe in 2023. By comparison, Spain’s foreign population stood over eight million, positioning the Western Mediterranean country third on the European list of foreign-born population. Unfortunately, thousands of persons have died or gone missing trying to reach Spanish territory, as more and more irregular migrants opt to use dangerous maritime routes to arrive at Southern Europe from Africa’s coasts.
When it comes to the future of the British community in Spain, they, and other third party non-European Union citizens whose countries do not have agreements with Madrid, such as North Americans, could face a new challenge if the Spanish PM has his way. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is proposing to ban purchasers from outside the European Union from buying properties, as the government seeks to curb rising housing prices, which have become an increasing source of friction.
“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 has stated. Sanchez on January 13 unveiled a proposal to tax by up to 100% the acquisitions of property by non-EU citizens not living in Spain as part of a series of measures seeking to boost supply and reduce demand for housing in the country. A source close to Sanchez played down the suggestion of a ban, saying the plan remained to discourage these acquisitions through increased tax rates.
Either potential change would need to pass the lower house where Sanchez’s minority government faces a constant struggle to pass any bill. Either way, there will be damage to Spain’s reputation, said real estate company CBRE. “All factors related to regulatory and juridical changes are discouraging investors,” said Paloma Relinque, CBRE’s executive corporate director for Spain. Housing has become a major issue in Spain as it struggles to balance promoting tourism, a key driver of its economy, with concerns over high rents due to gentrification and landlords shifting to more lucrative, short-term tourist rentals, especially in urban and coastal areas.
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Italy, a fellow southern European country, is fifth! The next Western European countries are then the UK at seventeenth, Germany and France. Way back. What’s that all about? Why so many Italians hopping across? Is Italy that bad compared to Spain?