The president of the API association of real estate agents in the Balearics, José Miguel Artieda, says that the Spanish government's intention to eliminate the so-called Golden Visa will be "harmless" for the islands' property market.
This visa was a measure adopted in 2013 at a time of economic difficulty and was designed to encourage foreign investment in order to reactivate the economy. Since then, as Artieda explains, the price of housing has risen by 65%, the average having gone up to 3,250 euros per square metre in the Balearics, "a region that has positioned itself as one of the most attractive at a tourist and residential level".
The latest report from the College of Registrars showed that 31.5% of property purchases in the Balearics in 2023 were by foreigners, the vast majority of whom were EU citizens. The largest non-EU market was the UK, with ten per cent of all foreign purchases.
Spain's housing minister, Isabel Rodríguez, has pointed to an increase in the issuing of these visas over the past two years. There were 3,273 in 2023. Of these, only two per cent applied to the Balearics.
For its part, the ABINI association of national and international real estate agencies insists that getting rid of the visa will not solve the housing problem in the Balearics. "It is a smokescreen aimed at diverting attention and generating a debate that does not exist in order to justify the lack of housing policies."
Two per cent or not, according to Prime Minister Sánchez, Palma leads the national ranking in terms of visas along with cities such as Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga, Alicante and Valencia. This said, there is no official government list by region. Since 2013, the government has in fact always been reluctant to provide information.