I am not sure whether the Socialist-Communist government of Spain likes foreign purchasers. If they do, they do not seem to show it. In fact, instead, one would have thought they consider them a nuisance.
A recent example of this is the elimination of the golden visa in Spain, whereby wealthy individuals could purchase a Spanish property of substantial value and get a visa in return. This is shortly to take effect.
Now, in a recent speech by the Spanish President, Pedro Sanchez certainly seems to have set the cat amongst the pidgeons. He is understood to have anounced that his government proposes to double the transfer tax on purchasers of Spanish realestate by non EU residents, for example by UK residents. Such a drastic tax hike would mean this Spanish equivalent to British Stamp duty would be raised from 7% to 14% in Andalucia, with rise being even higher in some other areas of Spain.
But, though I resist to believe such a drastic measure, listening to his actual speech, he in fact says that the proposal is to increase the tax to 100% of the value of the property, ie such a purchaser would have to pay double the price of the property. In my view, if this was the case, it would make such purchases untenable.
Having said this, I believe that the legality of such a measure is open to a great deal of doubt.
One would have thought that raising taxes is not always the best way to promote growth, investment and wealth creation in Spain, but then why change a tried and tested extreme left tradition?
Want to read me more? See my polite rant in:
https://www.diariodealmeria.es/almeria/dejaran-comprar-casas-almeria-britanicos_0_2003140013.html