Ten key golden visa stats as Spain axes scheme for wealthy foreigners

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez first announced plans to cancel the country’s golden visa option back in April 2024, a decision which made international headlines given Spain’s popularity among foreigners.

For over a decade, the scheme has allowed non-EU nationals to gain Spanish residency by either buying property or investing in Spain, with more flexible requirements compared to other visas for third-country nationals.

READ ALSO: Golden visa cancellation spells end of Spain’s ‘best’ residency option

The primary reason Spain’s government has given for axing its golden visa is the impact affluent non-EU nationals and their purchasing power have allegedly had on Spain’s housing crisis.

However, many have argued since then that the decision was a populist move rather than an actual solution to the rise in property prices in Spain as the homes golden visa holders have bought only represent a small fraction of yearly transactions.

Furthermore, these foreign home buyers have mainly purchased luxury homes, whilst ordinary Spaniards are struggling to buy lower-priced properties.

It took Spain’s Socialist-led government a year to overcome several legal obstacles which prevented the scheme’s cancellation from coming into force, but in January 2025, it was finally given a deadline – April 3rd 2025. 

Here are some key stats we’ve put together to explain Spain’s golden visa scheme and why it’s being scrapped.

12 years: Is the amount of time Spain’s golden visa has been available for. It was originally approved by Mariano Rajoy’s cash-strapped right-wing government in 2013 as a means of drawing international investments to Spain when the country was in the midst of an economic crisis.

€500,000: Is the minimum amount non-EU nationals had to pay for a property to be eligible for the visa. That is currently equivalent to £418,000 GBP, or $540,000 USD. There were other non-real estate options available to third-country nationals who wanted to get Spain’s golden visa: investing €1 million in shares in Spanish companies, or €2 million in government bonds, or transferring €1 million to a Spanish bank account.

95 percent: Is the percentage of Spanish golden visas issued which were based on the purchase of one or more Spanish properties (14,576). This reflects that the other investment options in public debt, bank deposits and investments were not at all popular, and yet the government still decided to scrap them even though they were having no impact on Spain’s housing market.

€657,204: Is the average amount golden visa applicants spent on property in 2024, far above the €500K threshold. In 2022, it was €857,105 on average and in 2023 €769,332, figures which serve as examples of just how wealthy these non-EU nationals achieving Spanish residency were.

15,450: Is the number of golden visas that were issued in the decade from 2013 to 2023 according to Housing Ministry data, including all investment options.

READ ALSO: Spain’s luxury property market to be ‘unaffected’ by end of golden visa 

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33,237: Is the total number of foreigners in Spain who obtained Spanish residency through the golden visa. This includes partners and children of the main applicants. 

Chinese and Russians: Most of the beneficiaries of Spain’s golden visa were citizens of two countries – China and Russia. From 2013 to 2023, 2,712 Chinese people received the visa and 1,259 Russians were issued one. They are followed by British, American, Ukrainian, Iranian, Venezuelan and Mexican citizens.

Six golden visa hotspots: Data released by Spain’s Ministry of Housing indicates that 90 percent of residence permits for real estate investment were concentrated across six provinces: Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Málaga, Alicante, the Balearic Islands, and Valencia. 

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Golden visa surge caused crackdown: The number of people being granted the golden visas doubled in 2022 to 2,017 and continued to grow in 2023, reaching 3,273.  This was cited as the reason for the scheme being cancelled by Spain’s Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez, who said “it was in 2022 when the alarm was raised as golden visas doubled. In 2016, 471 golden visas linked to Spanish real estate were issued. In 2017, 946. In 2018, 988. In 2019, 861. In 2020, 632. In 2021, 997. In 2022, 2,017. And in 2023, 3,272.”

Last-minute golden visa rush: 780 is the number of golden visas that were granted between January and October 2024, most of them after Sánchez announced the scheme’s cancellation. Although no official figures have been released since then, estimates from Spain’s real estate sector suggest around 500 more visados de oro have been issued in the first three months of 2025.