Spain To Offer Residency In Exchange For Purchasing Property

By Denis Foynes

Spain has more than 700,000 unsold houses following the breakdown of its real estate market in 2008. In an attempt to improve Spain’s disastrous housing market, the government is set to offer residency to anyone who purchases a house or apartment worth €160,000 or more.

The plan is set to be approved in the coming weeks. It would be aimed primarily untapped at Russian and Chinese markets. It is not clear if the residency will be for the entire E.U. or be restricted to Spain. It is also unclear if it will contain the possibility of full citizenship.

The country's offer is an improvement on others in bailed-out countries such as Ireland and Portugal, where residency papers are offered to foreigners buying houses worth more than €400,000.

With 25% of the population currently unemployment, many people simply can’t afford their repayments on their homes. Reports claim that there were 300 evictions per day in the first half of 2012. The problem was underlined on Monday when the Bank of Spain announced that the level of bad debt in the country’s banks had risen to 10.7% of their loan total in September.