Spain’s right-wing parties have rejected a proposal brought forward in the Congress and Senate to limit foreigners in the country’s two archipelagos from buying properties, with Vox labelling the move “xenophobic”.
The PP and Vox on Tuesday formed a majority in a Joint Committee between the Spanish Congress and Senate to reject a proposal to limit, regulate, or condition the purchase of property by non-residents in the Balearic and Canary Islands.
This was a non-binding initiative which had the support of several left-wing groups known as the Confederate Left and Coalición Canaria (CC), the nationalist party in power in the Atlantic archipelago.
CC recently suggested it would pursue such limitations on foreigners buying homes while at a meeting with other outermost regions of the EU, hoping that this status would convince Brussels to make an exception for them when it came to a measure which goes against the bloc’s free movement of people and capital.
READ MORE: Spain’s Canaries ask EU to help them limit foreigners buying homes
In the Balearic Islands, some left-wing politicians have raised the possibility of negotiating with the European Union the extension of this limitation, “due to the similarities between their reality and that of an ultraperipheral region like the Canary Islands.”
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In April, the right-wing regional government of the Balearic Islands already came out against this proposal.
The Canaries and the Balearics, both extremely popular tourist destinations, have seen property prices and rents spiral in recent years, with locals priced out as an ever-increasing number of foreigners have bought up real estate.
Aside from putting the brakes on foreign property ownership, complementary measures to promote affordable housing, the rehabilitation of the housing stock, and giving priority access for residents of both archipelagos were also suggested.
Foreigners (resident and non-resident) accounted for just under 1 in 5 property purchases in the Canaries in the second half of 2024, while in the Balearics it was more than one in four, figures from Spain’s General Council of Notaries show.
The proposal’s text criticised that the massive acquisition of houses by non-resident citizens “is generating unprecedented pressure on the housing market in the Balearic and Canary Islands, especially in areas with the highest incidence of tourist activity.”
“This situation is causing a profound distortion of prices, progressively expelling the local population from access to decent housing, while eroding the social, economic and cultural fabric of the islands,” they argued.
Opposing the proposal was Balearic Vox MP Jorge Campos, who accused the Confederal Left group of omitting the word “foreigner” in its proposal to avoid being labelled “xenophobic.”
“Prohibiting or limiting the purchase of homes by non-resident foreign citizens or EU citizens is pure xenophobia,” the far-right politician added.
Meanwhile, the Popular Party (PP) pointed out that the housing “problem” “does not come from outside”, blaming the central government of Pedro Sánchez for generating “legal uncertainty, more bureaucracy, higher taxes, eliminating the deduction for rent, and giving squatters total impunity.”
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For her part, the PSOE’s representative in the Joint Committee MP Dolores Corujo praised the actions of Sánchez’s government with regard to housing, citing as an example the elimination of the golden visa and the approval of the Housing Law.
2025 has been marked by several proposals to prevent foreign buyers from purchasing properties in Spain as a means of addressing the country’s housing crisis.
In January, the Spanish premier suggested either imposing a 100 percent ‘supertax’ on non-resident non-EU buyers, or either banning them altogether from buying homes in Spain if they have no links to the country. There has been no news on this front since.
Then in late March Catalan separatist party ERC presented its own initiative to force resident foreigners – rather than non-residents – to have to apply for the right to buy homes if they have lived here for under five years in the country. This proposal has since been rejected.
The measure affecting foreign property ownership which has been approved is the cancellation of the golden visa scheme which for more than ten years gave wealthy non-EU nationals Spanish residency if they purchased a €500,000 property in Spain.
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