The Spanish golden visa, and why property no longer qualifies

If you have been told that buying a property in Spain can get you residency, you have been told something that used to be true.

It is not true now, and a good deal of the material still circulating online was written before the rule changed. This page exists because the question keeps arriving and because the honest answer is one we would rather give you before a purchase than after.

What changed

Spain introduced residency by investment in 2013. Among the qualifying routes was the purchase of real estate above a set threshold, and that route became the best known of them — the one most people mean when they say golden visa.

Spain abolished the investor residence permit in 2025. The repeal was enacted through Ley Orgánica 1/2025 and took effect in the spring of that year. The property route closed with it.

The reasoning given was housing affordability: the scheme was seen as adding pressure to markets already under strain, and the property route accounted for the overwhelming majority of permits issued under it.

Who this actually affects

Only citizens of countries outside the EU and EEA. If you hold the passport of an EU member state, the golden visa was never relevant to you — you have freedom of movement, and you may live and work in Spain without any permit at all. Registration formalities apply after three months, but they are registration, not permission.

The same holds beyond the EU itself. Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein are in the EEA, so their citizens have the same freedom of movement. Swiss citizens reach the same result by a different route: not through EU law, but through the free-movement agreement between Switzerland and the EU. For all of them, the golden visa was never the relevant door.

The repeal therefore matters to British buyers, who moved into the third-country category with Brexit, and to American, Canadian, Chinese, Russian and other buyers who were always in it. For a German, Dutch, Norwegian or Swiss buyer it changes nothing, because nothing was needed.

One caution for Swiss readers, because the two questions are easily confused: freedom of movement and Spanish tax law draw the line in different places. On residence, Switzerland sits with the EU. On tax, it does not — Spain treats Swiss residents as third-country owners, which changes what may be deducted from rental income. That is covered in the tax guide, and it is worth reading before you let anyone tell you the two follow the same rule.

What it means if you are buying now

Buying a home in Spain gives you an asset. It does not give you a right to be in the country.

For a non-EU buyer, that means your stay is governed by the standard rules for third-country nationals — currently a limit of ninety days in any rolling one-hundred-and-eighty-day period across the Schengen area. Owning a house in Mallorca does not extend it, and neither does holding an NIE.

This catches people out. A second home that you expected to use for five months of the year is a different proposition when you can legally use it for three.

How the 90/180 rule actually counts

The rule is more restrictive than it sounds, because the window rolls.

On any given day, look back over the previous 180 days and count every day you were inside the Schengen area. That total must not exceed 90. Days are not reset by leaving and returning, and they are not allocated per country — a week in France counts against the same allowance as a week in Mallorca.

Two consequences worth planning around. Three months in the spring means you cannot return until the earliest days have rolled out of the window, which takes most of the summer. And a pattern of long weekends adds up faster than people expect, because part-days at each end count as full days.

Entry and exit are recorded. Overstaying is not a paperwork problem — it can carry entry bans, and it is the kind of thing that surfaces at a border years later.

There is a quiet corollary: on 90 days in 180 you cannot reach the 183-day threshold that would make you tax resident in Spain. The visitor limit and the tax rule are separate systems, but for a compliant visitor they do not collide.

What happens to permits already granted

Permits issued before the repeal were not cancelled. Holders retain them, and transitional arrangements govern renewal.

If you hold one, or bought with one in progress, this is precisely the situation to put in front of an immigration lawyer rather than to read about. The transitional detail is where the specifics live, and it depends on dates that are personal to your file.

What actually exists instead

There are other routes into Spanish residency. None of them is triggered by buying property, and all of them turn on your circumstances rather than your purchase.

The non-lucrative visa is designed for people who can support themselves without working in Spain — typically retirees or those living on passive income. It requires proof of sufficient means, referenced to a statutory income measure that is revised annually, plus private health cover with no co-payments. It does not permit employment, in Spain or remotely, which is the condition most applicants misread.

The digital nomad visa covers remote workers earning from outside Spain, subject to its own income threshold, evidence of an established employer or client relationship, and limits on how much of your income may come from Spanish sources.

Both require an application made in advance, generally from your country of residence, and both bring the holder within Spanish tax residence if the stay passes 183 days — which is usually the point of them. A property purchase strengthens neither application and is not a substitute for either.

We are property advisers, and the boundary is worth stating plainly: we will tell you what a purchase does and does not do for your position, and we will not advise you on a visa application. That belongs with a Spanish immigration lawyer, and we are happy to say so before you have committed to anything.

If the visa was the point of the purchase

Some of the demand for Spanish property was created by the scheme itself, and part of that demand is still being sold to on old information.

If residency was your reason to buy, the reason has gone. That does not make the purchase wrong — it makes it a different purchase, to be judged on the house, the location and the numbers rather than on a benefit that no longer exists.

Other European countries operate their own investment-residence schemes, and several have been narrowed or closed in recent years. If that is genuinely your objective rather than the island, the sequence is the wrong way round: settle the immigration question first, with someone qualified to answer it, and let it tell you where to buy.

Why this page is short on numbers

You will find sites quoting thresholds and processing times for the property route. Those figures describe a scheme that no longer accepts applications. Repeating them would make this page rank better and would make it worse.

Frequently asked questions

Can I still get Spanish residency by buying property?

No. Spain repealed the investor residence permit in 2025 and the real-estate route closed with it. No amount of property investment now creates a right of residence.

Is my existing golden visa still valid?

Permits granted before the repeal were not revoked, and transitional rules govern renewals. The specifics depend on your dates, so this is a question for an immigration lawyer rather than a general guide.

Does this affect EU citizens?

No. Citizens of EU and EEA states have freedom of movement and never needed the scheme. Registration is required after three months of residence, but that is a formality rather than a permission.

How long can I stay in Spain if I own a house there?

Ownership does not affect it. Non-EU citizens without a residence permit — British, American, Canadian, Australian and others — are limited to ninety days in any one-hundred-and-eighty-day period across the Schengen area.

How is the 90/180 rule counted?

On any day, count the days spent anywhere in the Schengen area during the preceding 180 days; the total must stay at or below 90. Leaving and returning does not reset it, and days in other Schengen countries count too.

Does an NIE give me any right to stay?

No. The NIE is a tax and identification number. It is required to buy property and carries no immigration rights at all.

What are the alternatives to the golden visa?

Principally the non-lucrative visa for those living on passive income and the digital nomad visa for remote workers. Both depend on your circumstances, not on owning property, and both are applied for in advance.

Should I buy in Spain if residency was my reason?

Then the reason has gone, and it is worth pausing. A property bought for a benefit that no longer exists is a decision made on old information. Buy because the house and the location are right — that reasoning has not changed.