Palma will be one of the cities where the suspension of the 'golden visa' announced on Monday by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will be most noticeable. Ferrán Font, Director of Studies at Pisos.com, explains that this is because it is estimated that it is one of the capitals in which more properties have been acquired with the aim of obtaining a residence permit, along with Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga and Alicante. However, he specifies that there is no specific data on this.
However, he argues that it is not possible to speak of damage since the number of residence permits that have been granted for the purchase of properties worth 500,000 euros or more is not very significant: 136 in the whole of Spain in 2022. "From the point of view of the market in general, and although it is a time when foreign purchases are around 15% and at historic highs, the impact that this may have will be relative".
Although there is no data by autonomous community or city, Font maintains that the Balearic capital is one of the most attractive for Russian and Chinese buyers, who are the ones who have made the most use of the aforementioned regulations, approved by the PP in 2013. "In 2022, only 136 of these permits were granted, which represents approximately 0.14% of all purchases by foreigners at national level," he explains.
The aim of Sánchez's decision is to "guarantee that housing is a right and not just a speculative business". However, the Director of Studies at Pisos.com considers that it will not be possible to achieve this, given that these are houses with a high purchasing value, 500,000 euros or more, which means that people who have difficulties in accessing housing cannot afford them.
Nor does he believe that it will have a negative impact on the sale and purchase of homes, as the figure is very low. Font insists that Palma in particular, and the Balearic Islands in general, is very attractive to foreign buyers, who are the main investros of this type of residence. On this point, he points out that 35% of the purchase and sale operations carried out on the Islands are by foreigners.