The ‘Golden Visa’ effect

Economists claim that the elimination of the ‘Golden Visa’, the Spanish nationality visas for foreigners buying a property worth more than €500,000, will not have a significant impact on a general drop in house prices.

The economic barometer of the province of Malaga reflects that, despite the fact that the Government stated that the elimination of the ‘Golden Visa’ would mean restrictions on the purchase of housing by foreigners, “in our opinion the problem is different”, in relation to the fact that this segment “is aimed at homes worth more than half a million euros, that is, the luxury market,” they say.

Fotocasa, one of the most prominent real estate portals, currently lists 6,014 second-hand homes and 57 new properties for sale in Axarquia. The listings range in price from €16,000 to €3.7 million, however of all the properties for sale less than 17 per cent are priced at over €500,000 and therefore would have qualified for the Golden Visa.

Rival web portal, Idealista, shows a similar picture with less than 20 per cent of all the properties listed for sale in Axarquia priced at €500,000 or over.

Unlike other areas on the Costa del Sol for instance where the majority of homes are valued in excess of half a million Euros, in the Axarquia region over 80 per cent of homes are unaffected.