The Spanish Golden visa programme was launched on 27 Sep 2013, under the Law 14/2013 (Ley 14/2013), granting residence permits to foreign investors who make a significant investment in Spain. The Law 14/2013, has been modified by Law 25/2015 to support entrepreneurs and their internationalization

Foreign investors must meet the following investment requirements

  • Public debt (€2 million)
  • Shares (€ 1 million)
  • Investment funds or venture capital funds set up in Spain (€1 million)
  • Bank deposits (€500,000)
  • Real estate (€500,000)

Investors qualify for visa (1 year) when applying outside Spain (Spanish embassy) or will be issued residence permit for 2 years when applying in Spain.  Residence permits can be extended for another 2 years. Investors can live and work anywhere in Spain and have freedom to move around in Schengen area for 3 months in 6 month period.

Family members who accompany or join the investor may apply jointly and simultaneously or successively for their residence permit.

Golden visas issued

Since the enactment of Golden visa Law 14/2013 on support for entrepreneurs and their internationalization, the number of residence authorizations granted through golden visa is 26,090 on June 30, 2018.

In year-on-year variation there has been an increase in 35.3%, 6,807 authorizations more than on the same date of 2017.

A distinction can be made between authorizations granted for reasons of economic interest, in force on June 30, 2018, amounting to 13,522, 51.8% of the total, and those granted for family reasons, which represent 48.2% of the total authorizations in force as of June 30, 2018, which registers a value of 12,568.

Among foreigners residing for reasons of economic interest,

  • 6,446 (47.7%) corresponded to highly qualified professionals,
  • 3,621 (26.8%) for Investors, and
  • 1,727 (12.8%) intra-company transfers to researchers.
  • 291 (2.2%) for  Entrepreneurs

 

Assuming 90% of investors buying a property for atleast 500,000 euros, the total property investment inflows into Spain estimated atleast 1.8 billion euros.

Top countries

The national residents of China, Russia, the United States and Venezuela are among those who have obtained a greater number of authorizations for reasons of economic interest and continue in force as of June 30, 2018.

In the case of investors, the Chinese and Russian groups stand out with 1,278 and 954 residents respectively. Venezuela stands out in the case of highly qualified professionals, with 753 residents. Over 90% in the investor category have invested in property in Spain.

Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia are favorite destinations for property investment for foreigners. Russians prefer to invest in Marbella and Costa del sol, according to Elpais

Golden visa evaluation report

The interim evaluation committee has published spanish golden visa report for the cases process between Sept 2013 – Dec 2014

Investments in property account for 92.5% of the visas and permits issued to foreign investors.

During that time a total of 3,120 residence permit and visas were issued, broken down as follows:

  • 531 to investors (490 in property, 29 in shares and 12 in projects in the general interest),
  • 82 to entrepreneurs,
  • 1,231 to highly qualified professionals,
  • 369 to researchers and
  • 907 to intra-corporate transfers.

The value of the investments received totalled EUR 446,843,921, of which the investment from the purchase of property amounted to EUR 369,766,625 and the investment in financial assets stood at EUR 37,543,69613 (Table 3). In addition to these amounts, the investment in business projects in the general interest is estimated at EUR 39.5 million.

TOTAL INVESTMENT

30 Sept 2013 – 31 Dec 2014

CATEGORY

Number

% total

AMOUNT(EUR)

% total

CAPITAL

29

5.46

37.543.696

8.40

PROPERTY

490

92.28

369.766.625

82.75

BUSINESS PROJECT

12

2.26

39.533.600

8.85

TOTAL

531

100.00

446.843.921

100.00

Property investment

The main nationalities  for property investment were Russian and Chinese, representing 68.8% of the total number of visas/residence permits issued for this category (34.5% Russian and 34.3% Chinese)

PROPERTY INVESTMENT

30 Sept 2013 – 31 Dec 2014

Distribution by country of origin

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN

Number

% total

EUR

% total

RUSSIAN FEDERATION

169

34.5

144,215,240

39.0

CHINA

168

34.3

108,318,001

29.3

UKRAINE

14

2.9

10,827,160

2.9

EGYPT

13

2.7

8,781,043

2.4

LEBANON

11

2.2

6,833,000

1.8

VENEZUELA

10

2.0

11,572,085

3.1

USA

9

1.8

7,209,500

1.9

SUM 7 main countries

394

80.4

297,756,029

80.5

OTHERS

96

19.6

72,010,596

19.5

TOTAL

490

100.0

369,766,625

100.0

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation

 

According to the report, Top country nationality that invested the highest amount was Russians, accounting for 39.0% of the total value of the investment (EUR 144,215,240), followed by China with 29.3% and EUR 108,318,001. Following on from these two is Venezuela, which, despite holding sixth position in terms of visas/residence permits issued, is third by amount of investment (EUR 11,572,085).

The average property investment made by Russian citizens is EUR 883,354, although 33 of the 169 residence visas/permits were issued for investments of more than EUR 1 million. Turning on China, the average property investment made by Chinese nationals is EUR 644,750, and just 6 investments were in excess of EUR 1 million. In this case, the majority of the investments ranged from EUR 500,000 to EUR 600,000. With regard to amounts, the average investment made by Venezuelan and US citizens totalled EUR 1,157,209 and EUR 801,056, respectively.

DISTRIBUTION BY DESTINATION OF INVESTMENT

PROVINCE

Number

% total

BARCELONA

198

40.41

MÁLAGA

99

20.20

MADRID

74

15.10

ALICANTE

32

6.53

GIRONA

15

3.06

VALENCIA

15

3.06

OTHERS

57

11.63

TOTAL

490

100.00

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation