Spain Pushes Ahead With Plan to Tax Non-EU Home Buyers 100%

Residential buildings in the Sant Mart district of Barcelona, Spain.

Photographer: Manaure Quintero/Bloomberg

Spain’s government is pushing ahead with a controversial proposal to hit non-European Union residents with a 100% tax when buying homes, as it seeks to tackle a brewing housing crisis.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist party presented the plan as part of a broader housing bill submitted to Parliament on Thursday. The bill seeks to promote “measures that enable access to housing, since we are facing one of the largest problems our society is currently confronted with,” according to a copy of the draft legislation seen by Bloomberg.