Golden Visa: Buy a House in Marbella, Get Spanish Residence

07 Apr 2018 | Buying and Selling FAQ

The Golden Visa, where non-residents get residence in Spain when they decide to buy a house in Marbella, or anywhere else in Spain, has been in force since 2013. As a result of this law, any foreign person who’s a non-resident and who plans to go to Spain to make a “significant investment”, whether this be in financial assets, a business project or property, can apply for a long-stay or residence visa.

Golden Visa: Buy a House in Marbella, Get Spanish Residence

The term “significant investment” should be understood quantitatively. This is because minimum amounts have been established for each type of investment, as we’ll explain below.

Investments in financial assets:
Public debt: €2,000,000 minimum.
Stocks or shares in Spanish companies: €1,000,000 minimum.
Closed-end or risk-capital funds: €1,000,000.
Deposits in Spanish banks: €1,000,000.
Investment in business projects: valued based on their impact on general interest.
Real-estate investment: €500,000 minimum, net, excluding tax.

This article is about the possibility of a foreign citizen who is not resident in Spain applying for Spanish residence when they want to go to Spain to buy a house in Marbella.

In this case, the investment has to be for a minimum amount of €500,000, net, excluding tax, as we mentioned above. The investor can get a visa for a six-month stay even before they make the purchase. To do this, they have to sign an earnest-money agreement to guarantee performance, and deposit the purchase price in a bank.

Once they’ve bought the property, and can prove this through the public deed of sale and land-registry certificate, the interested party can apply for a one-year residence visa for investors. After being granted the investor visa, the holder will be entitled to live and work in Spain while the visa remains valid.

Once the interested party has this visa, they can apply for an initial investor residence permit, which will be valid for two years. At the end of these two years, foreign investors who want to live in Spain for a longer time can apply for the residence permit to be renewed for successive periods of five years, as long as the conditions that gave rise to the right to residency remain unchanged.

It’s possible to make the investment through a legal person as long as the registered office of the company isn’t in a country classified as a tax haven, and as long as the visa applicant holds a majority share in the company.

A representative of the investor can also submit the residence visa application, as long as they hold due power of attorney.

Each full tranche of 500,000 euros plus tax on property investment entitles you to apply for a residence visa for investors and their accredited family unit.

It is also possible to purchase a property of more than 500,000 euros, for example 1,000,000 euros, through a real estate investment and have two investors. In this way, each investor must meet the minimum investment of 500,000 euros, which in this case would be 50% each.

Finally, it will also be possible for an investor to buy several properties for an amount of 500,000 euros or more, for example a house for 470,000 euros and a garage for 30,000 euros. The total must add up to the required minimum of 500,000 euros plus tax.

At Benarroch Real Estate, we want to give you the information you need, adapted to your personal situation, when you’re making the decision to buy a house in Marbella. In this instance, that means information for a non-resident who wants to buy a real-estate property in Marbella and apply for residency.