Spain proposes 100% tax on non-EU house buyers
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialist party presented the plan as part of a broader housing bill submitted to Parliament on Thursday.
The bill seeks to promote 'measures that enable access to housing, since we are facing one of the largest problems our society is currently confronted with', according to a copy of the draft legislation seen by Bloomberg.
Sanchez first announced plans to create the new tax in January, in an attempt to address growing discontent over surging real estate prices and housing shortages in areas including Madrid and Barcelona.
At the time, Sanchez said foreigners were snapping up homes and speculating on price increases, and that non-EU residents bought 27,000 properties in 2023.
UK citizens are the biggest foreign buyers of Spanish property, mainly in coastal regions such as Valencia, Andalusia and the Balearic Islands. Germans, Dutch and other EU citizens will be exempt.
The UK left the EU in early 2020, severing political ties it had held for almost half a century. It then stayed inside the EU single market and customs union for almost a year to facilitate trade.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
‘China is not the US': Europe has challenges but none come from Beijing, Wang Yi tells EU
China has presented itself as a 'peaceful, inclusive and cooperative' partner for the European Union and pledged it will not follow the path taken by the US. Advertisement In a meeting with EU representatives in Brussels on Wednesday, China's top diplomat Wang Yi urged the bloc to 'truly foster a rational understanding' of China and not seek confrontation despite their division. 'China and Europe have different histories, cultures and values. We should not regard each other as opponents just because of differences, nor should we seek confrontation just because of disagreements,' Wang told the EU delegation led by the bloc's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas. 'Europe is currently facing various challenges, but none of them came from China in the past, present or future,' he said. 03:34 Nato leaders to spend 5% of GDP on defence amid US pressure, Russia threat Nato leaders to spend 5% of GDP on defence amid US pressure, Russia threat 'China's diplomacy upholds the harmonious gene of Chinese civilisation and advocates peace, tolerance and cooperation. On issues of peace and security, China has the best track record among the world's major powers. China is not the United States, and the path taken by the United States should not be used as a mirror for China.'
AllAfrica
an hour ago
- AllAfrica
Russian interference expected in election on Ukraine's border
When Moldovans go to the polls in parliamentary elections on September 28, it will be the third time in less than a year – after a referendum on future EU membership and presidential elections last autumn. In both of the recent elections pro-European forces scraped to victory, thanks to a strong turnout among Moldovan diaspora voters, primarily in Western Europe and North America. And in both elections, Russian interference was a significant factor. This is unlikely to change in the upcoming parliamentary vote. Moldova is too important a battleground in Russia's campaign to rebuild a Soviet-style sphere of influence in eastern Europe. Wedged between EU and NATO member Romania to the west and Ukraine to the east, Moldova has its own aspirations for EU accession. But with a breakaway region in Transnistria, which is host to a Russian military base and 'peacekeeping force' and whose population is leaning heavily towards Russia, this will not be a straightforward path to membership. What's more, a Euro-skeptic and Moscow-friendly government after the next elections might allow the Kremlin to increase its military presence in the region and thereby pose a threat not only to Ukraine but also to Romania. While not quite equivalent to Russia's unsinkable aircraft carrier of Kaliningrad, a more Russia-friendly Moldovan government would be a major strategic asset for Moscow. Unsurprisingly, Moldova's president, Maia Sandu, and her Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky have little doubt that further destabilization is at the top of Russia's agenda. Fears about a Russian escalation in the months before the elections are neither new nor unfounded. There were worries that Moldova and Transnistria might be next on the Kremlin's agenda as far back as the aftermath of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. These worries resurfaced when Moscow, rather prematurely, announced the beginning of stage two of its war against Ukraine in late April, 2022. Russia's hopes of capturing all of southern Ukraine may not have materialized yet, but they are not off the Kremlin's agenda. And a track record of false-flag operations in Transnistria and a coup attempt in Moldova do not bode well in the run-up to the elections. Knife-edge elections are nothing new in Moldova. Not only is the country physically divided along the river Nistru, but opinions over its future geopolitical orientation remain split even in the territory controlled by the government. With no pre-1991 history of independent statehood, parts of Moldova were part of Ukraine, Romania and the Soviet Union. Russian is widely spoken and, while declining in number, Moldovan labor migrants to Russia remain important contributors of remittances, which accounted for over 12 percent of the country's GDP in 2023. Moldovans in large numbers are, therefore, not keen on severing all ties with Russia. This does not mean they are supporters of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, or are opponents of closer relations with the European Union. But as the referendum and presidential elections in October 2024 showed, if pushed to make a choice between Russia and Europe and manipulated by Russian fear-mongering and vote buying, pro-European majorities remain slim. This is despite the significant support that the EU has provided to Moldova, including €1.9 billion ($2.2 billion) in financial support to facilitate reforms as part of the country's efforts to join the EU. And there's also nearly €200 million in military assistance over the past four years, including a €20 million package for improved air defenses announced in April. The EU has also provided several emergency aid packages to assist the country's population during repeated energy crises triggered by Russia. Since then, the Moldovans and Brussels have agreed on a comprehensive energy strategy that should make the country immune to Russian blackmail. This pattern of competitive influence seeking by Russia and the EU is long-standing and has not produced any decisive, lasting breakthroughs for either side. When the current president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, won in 2020, she defeated her opponent, Igor Dodon, by a decisive 58% to 42% margin, equivalent to some 250,000 votes that separated the candidates in the second round. Sandu's Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) obtained almost 53% of votes in the 2021 parliamentary elections and gained 63 seats in the 101-seat parliament. Not since the 2005 elections, won by the communist party under then-president Vladimir Voronin, had there been a a majority single-party government in Moldova. According to current opinion polls, PAS remains the strongest party with levels of support between 27% and 37%. In a crowded field of political parties and their leaders in which disappointment and doubt are the prevailing negative emotions among the electorate, Sandu and PAS remain the least unpopular choices. They have weathered the fall-out from the war in Ukraine well so far – managing the influx of refugees, keeping relations with Transnistria stable, and steering Moldova through a near-constant cost-of-living and energy crisis. Anti-government protests in 2022-23 eventually fizzled out. Russia's election interference in 2024 was ultimately not successful in cheating pro-European voters out of their victories in the presidential elections and the referendum on future EU membership. But this is unlikely to stop the Kremlin from trying again in the run-up to parliamentary elections in September. Moscow will try to disrupt and delay Moldova's already bumpy road to EU membership. A weakened pro-European government after parliamentary elections would be a very useful tool for Russia. Moldova and its European allies are in for an unusually hot summer. Stefan Wolff is a professor of international security at the University of Birmingham. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
South China Morning Post
8 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Emperor's financial struggle mirrors the current state of Hong Kong's property sector
Hong Kong developer Emperor International Holdings' struggles reflect the highs and lows the city's property sector has endured over the past few years. Advertisement Just over five years ago, residential and commercial real estate prices and rents were hitting record highs. Developers reported robust earnings and had access to cheap financing, boosting their confidence – and that of investors – to spend more on new projects or acquire existing income-generating properties. But this golden era ended abruptly. Social unrest in 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic that followed triggered an economic recession, reducing demand for commercial property at a time when new projects were being launched. The downturn also coincided with a sharp rise in Hong Kong's interest rates, which were raised 11 times between March 2022 and July 2023 to over 5 per cent from 0.5 per cent, before falling slightly last year. Emperor's full-year loss of HK$4.74 billion (US$600 million) for the year ended March 2025, more than double the HK$2.04 billion a year earlier, reveals the severity of the crisis facing the sector. The group, controlled by 82-year-old tycoon Albert Yeung Sau-shing, disclosed that bank borrowings totalling HK$16.6 billion were overdue and some associated loan covenants had been breached. Albert Yeung, the founder and chairman of Emperor Group, pictured in December 2024. Photo: VCG/VCG via Getty Images 'The broad issues faced by Hong Kong developers in the current environment would be weak property valuation and soft earnings from poor sales,' said Xavier Lee, an equity analyst at Morningstar. Lee did not specifically comment on Emperor's predicament, but gave a general overview of the challenges developers face in the current environment.
