PROPERTY SEARCH

Date Published: 11/07/2022

Spanish golden visa is one of the top investor choices in Europe in 2022

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

In H1 2022, the Spanish golden visa remains one of the top European investors’ choices

Spanish golden visa is one of the top investor choices in Europe in 2022

In the first half of 2022, the growth of the number of golden visas purchased by foreign nationals to stay in Spain began to slow.

According to research by Tranio, the Spanish golden visa was Europe’s top-5 programme by demand growth in 2021. While the growth pace slowed down in H1 2022, the demand for Spanish visas is still substantial and seems likely to remain stable in the long-term.

So-called “golden” visas are a type of document that allows someone to stay in the country if they make an investment (usually in real estate) over a certain threshold, in the case of spain 500,000 euros.

The continuing popularity of golden visas are said to have significantly contributed to the recovery of Europe’s property market after the pandemic.

See also: Post-Brexit rise in Britons applying for golden visas in Spain

These findings are based on Tranio's statistics on property purchase inquiries made by transnational investors from January to June 2022, as well as on the latest annual survey of property market experts from 40 countries.

Over the last decade, global investors’ interest in the golden visas and passports was largely focused on Europe and North America. The average number of foreign property buyers willing to get residents’ rights or citizenship in European countries that offer this option increased by 20% in 2021.

The top 5 European golden investment programmes growing in popularity among foreign investors are:

Portugal’s golden visa (in 2021 investor demand had increased by 100%)
Montenegro’s golden passport (+50%)
Greek golden visas (+30%)
Spanish golden visas (+28%)
Turkey’s golden passport (+22%)

In the first half of 2022, major trend shifts were outlined in cross-border property investment and the top growing “golden” programmes are all moving away from Spain. Europe’s top programmes by demand growth were the Greek golden visa (inquiries increased by 127% compared with H1 2021), the golden passports of Turkey (+24%), Malta (+18%) and Montenegro (+12%), as well as Italy’s residence-by-investment programme (+11%).

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