Spain Golden Visa Ended: One Year On, What Changed for Buyers

Spain's most famous shortcut to residency is gone, and a year on the property market it was blamed for has not cooled. The Golden Visa that handed non-EU buyers a residence permit in exchange for a 500,000 euro purchase ended on April 3, 2025, yet Spanish house prices rose faster in 2025 than in any year since 2007.

Spain abolished the Golden Visa through Ley Orgánica 1/2025, which repealed the investor residence visa created by Ley 14/2013. The change took effect on April 3, 2025, three months after the law was published. Buyers can no longer obtain residency simply by purchasing property, though permits granted before that date remain valid and renewable.

What did Spain actually abolish?

The property route to residency, specifically. The Ley Orgánica 1/2025 removed articles 63 to 67 of Ley 14/2013, the law that had let non-EU nationals gain a residence visa through a qualifying investment. Those investments included 500,000 euros in real estate, 1,000,000 euros in shares of Spanish companies, or 2,000,000 euros in public debt.

The repeal was not retroactive. Applications filed before April 3, 2025 were processed under the old rules, and existing investor permits stay valid until they expire and can be renewed under the conditions that applied when they were first granted. The government framed the move as a response to housing affordability, arguing the scheme had pushed up prices in cities such as Barcelona and Madrid, alongside EU pressure to close investment migration schemes.

Did ending the Golden Visa cool house prices?

No, at least not yet. Spanish house prices rose 12.7 percent across 2025, the largest annual increase since 2007, according to the Índice de Precios de Vivienda from the INE. The annual rate in the final quarter of 2025 reached 12.9 percent, with resale homes up 13.1 percent.

The Golden Visa was always a small share of total transactions, so removing it was never going to reverse a market driven by low supply and strong demand. For foreign buyers, the practical point is that affordability pressure, not the visa, is the real story.

Which residency routes still exist in 2026?

Several, none tied to simply buying a home:

• Digital Nomad Visa. For remote workers and freelancers, it requires proof of stable income well above the Spanish minimum wage.
• Visado no lucrativo (non lucrative visa). For those who can support themselves without working in Spain, popular with retirees.
• EU Blue Card and Highly Qualified Professional permits. For skilled employment with a Spanish employer.

Buying property can still support a visa application as proof of accommodation, but it no longer grants residency on its own.

What this means if you are buying in Spain now

Separate the purchase from the visa. If your goal is a home or an investment, buy on the merits of the property and the local market, and treat residency as a separate process through one of the routes above. If residency once justified stretching the budget to 500,000 euros, that logic is gone. For the other big policy question facing foreign buyers, see our explainer on Spain's proposed tax on non-EU buyers. Before you commit, running the listing through AiMYNDi's property analysis confirms the price against comparables and surfaces any charges on the title.