Golden visa Spanje afgeschaft: wat een partner van buiten de EU nu nodig heeft

A buyer from outside the EU finds a villa near Marbella listed at €560,000. The advert still says it qualifies for the golden visa. It did once. Since 3 April 2025 it qualifies for nothing beyond the villa itself, and plenty of listings and comparison pages have not caught up.

Below is what ended, what survived for people who already hold the permit, and what buying a home in Spain gives a non-EU buyer today.

What ended, and on which date

The golden visa was never a law of its own. It was a block of five articles, 63 to 67, in Ley 14/2013 on support for entrepreneurs, which gave a residence visa and then a residence permit to non-EU nationals who made a qualifying investment. There were four ways in:

• Property in Spain worth at least €500,000 per applicant.
• €2 million in Spanish public debt.
• €1 million in shares of Spanish companies, in investment funds, or in deposits with Spanish banks.
• A business project accepted as being of general interest.

Ley Orgánica 1/2025 of 2 January, a broad reform of the justice system, carried a final provision that simply left those five articles without content. The law was published on 3 January 2025 and that part came into force three months later, on 3 April 2025. All four routes closed on the same day, not only the property route that the public debate was about.

Two transitional rules were added to Ley 14/2013 at the same time. An application filed before 3 April 2025 can still be granted under the rules in force on the day it was filed. And the migration authority has confirmed that someone who requested the visa before that date may apply for the residence permit afterwards, even if the visa only took effect later.

If you already hold one

Existing permits did not lapse. The second transitional rule says that investor visas and permits valid on 3 April 2025 keep that validity for the period they were issued for, and that renewal applications are decided under the rules in force when the first permit was granted.

That provision is headed as applying to investors who bought property. The Unidad de Grandes Empresas, the unit of the migration ministry that handles these files, published criteria on 10 June 2025 that apply it more widely: every renewal is admitted, whatever the original investment, provided the first permit met the requirements when it was granted. The same criteria set three practical rules.

• The investment has to be kept, at no less than the minimum amount.
• It can be moved, in one direction. A property investment may be swapped for one of the other qualifying investments, and the non-property investments may be swapped among themselves. A move from shares, funds, deposits or debt into property is not accepted.
• Family members who already hold residence as an investor's relative keep it. Someone who joins the family after 3 April 2025, through a marriage or a birth, cannot come in through the investor route and has to use the general family rules.

For owners the consequence is concrete. Selling the house without placing the proceeds in another qualifying investment at the required level removes the basis for the next renewal.

What a home in Spain gives a non-EU buyer now

Ownership, and nothing more. A non-EU buyer can buy, register, let and sell a home in Spain on the same footing as anyone else, apart from a handful of restricted defence areas where a military authorisation is needed first. What the purchase no longer does is touch the right to stay.

Without a residence permit, a non-EU owner is a visitor. The Schengen Borders Code limits visitors to 90 days in any 180-day period, counted as a rolling window across the whole Schengen area, not per country and not per calendar year. For British owners that has been the position since 1 January 2021, unless they were already living in Spain before that date and are covered by the Withdrawal Agreement.

The counting has also stopped being theoretical. The EU's Entry/Exit System started in October 2025 and has been fully in operation since April 2026. Every entry and exit of a non-EU visitor is now recorded digitally, with fingerprints and a facial image, so an overstay shows up at the next border check instead of depending on passport stamps.

The routes that still lead to living in Spain

The property is neutral in every one of them. What decides the route is where the buyer's income comes from.

• Living on income or assets you already have, without working in Spain: the non-lucrative visa. What the rules actually ask for is set out in Spain's non-lucrative visa.
• Working remotely for employers or clients outside Spain: the international teleworker permit, covered in Spain's digital nomad visa.
• Married to, or the registered partner of, a citizen of another EU country who lives in Spain: residence as the family member of an EU citizen, which follows from that citizen's own right to live here.
• Starting a business in Spain or taking a qualified job here: the entrepreneur and highly qualified professional routes, which survived in the same law as the golden visa. They turn on the activity, not on an investment.

Once a residence permit is granted, the holder collects the physical card, the TIE. How that works is explained in the TIE card in Spain.

What the purchase itself still involves

None of this changes the purchase. Every buyer who appears in the deed needs a NIE before the registry will record the sale in their name, and a non-resident owner files a Spanish tax return on the property every year, even when it stands empty. The contract that causes most of the trouble is covered in buying a second home in Spain, and the yearly return in non-resident property tax in Spain.

Questions we get

Can I still apply for the Spanish golden visa in 2026? No. New applications have not been accepted since 3 April 2025, for property or for any of the other investments.

I applied before April 2025 and I am still waiting. What happens? The application is decided under the rules in force on the day it was filed.

Can I renew the golden visa I already have? Yes, under the rules that applied when it was first granted, as long as the investment is kept. A property investment may be exchanged for another qualifying investment, but not the other way round.

Does buying a house in Spain still help me get residency? Not by itself. The routes that remain look at income, work or family ties. Owning a home does not count for or against you.

I am British and own a home in Spain. How long can I stay? Without a residence permit, 90 days in any 180-day period. The exception is someone who already lived in Spain before 2021 and is covered by the Withdrawal Agreement.

Do I need a NIE to buy? Yes, every buyer does. Why, and what happens if the purchase goes ahead without one, is in buying property in Spain without a NIE number.

Why Buenaley?

Buenaley is a Spanish law firm working with international clients. For a buyer from outside the EU there are two things we take off your hands, in this order.

The first is the NIE. The purchase cannot be registered in your name without it, and it is the step that most often holds everything up. We handle that through our NIE service, for every person who will appear on the deed.

The second is the question the golden visa used to answer: how you can actually live in the house. That depends on where your income comes from, and it is worth settling before the purchase, not after.

• NIE applications for every buyer, started on day one
• The residence route chosen on how your income is earned, before any documents are gathered
• Existing investor permits reviewed before renewal, including a change of investment
• The purchase checked from the deposit contract to the registry
• Completion by power of attorney when travelling does not suit

Looking at a property, or holding a golden visa that is due for renewal? Send us your nationality, what you own or plan to buy and how your income is earned, and you will hear which route fits. Or start with the NIE application, because nothing goes into your name without it.