The Spanish Government has put the number of investor visas or ‘golden visas’ issued between 2013 and 2022 at 4,940, including visas for investors in capital, real estate and business projects, according to a Government response to Más País MP Íñigo Errejón.
The government says that 45% of these visas have been issued to Chinese citizens, a total of 2,263.
Investors from Russia accounted for 19.6%, with 969 visas.
The so-called ‘Golden Visa’ refers to visas that grant a residence permit to foreign individuals who buy a house worth at least 500,000 euros.
These permits were introduced under the Partido Popular government of Mariano Rajoy in 2013, through the law to support entrepreneurs and their internationalisation.
The party led by Íñigo Errejón has repeatedly criticised this figure and recently registered a bill to eliminate them, as it considers that the permits encourage “speculation” in housing prices in Spain.
Más País’s initiative would be similar to that undertaken by the Portuguese government, where it put an end to these visas as part of a shock plan to “combat property speculation”, according to the Portuguese prime minister, the socialist António Costa.