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SPAIN IS PLANNING to introduce a 100% tax rate on homes purchased by non-EU residents as part of a suite of measures to address the housing crisis.
The leftist government unveiled the plans yesterday, which encompass a building boom and tax hikes on the owners of tourist rentals.
They aim to offer more social housing, improve regulation and provide more support to renters, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told an economic forum in Madrid.
Supply is lagging far behind demand in the sector that consistently ranks among top concerns in Spain, scarred by a market bust that accompanied the 2008 global financial crisis.
New homes put on the market have trickled to around 90,000 per year as the country records 300,000 new households, Sanchez said.
The prime minister announced the transfer of two million square metres of land to a newly created public company to construct “thousands and thousands” of affordable social housing units.
Social housing makes up only 2.5% of Spain’s total stock, whereas in EU peers France and the Netherlands it is 14% and 34% respectively, Sanchez said.
The premier announced higher taxes and tighter regulation for tourist apartments, often blamed for reducing the availability of residential properties and causing rents to spike in the world’s second most-visited country.
“It is not fair that those who own three, four, five apartments for short-term rental pay less tax than hotels,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez also promised a tax exemption for owners who rent their properties according to the official index, even in areas not declared under market tension.
His government passed a flagship housing law in 2023 aiming to boost the construction of social housing, cap rents in areas under the greatest market pressure and inflict penalties on owners who leave their properties unoccupied.
But rents have continued to climb, increasing by 11% in 2024 according to real estate portal Idealista.
The specific of the 12 proposals have not yet been disclosed in full, but they will need parliamentary approval to be passed into law.
Since Brexit, British people with homes in Spain have been restricted to stays of a maximum of 90 days in every 180-day period, unless they are registered as tax residents.
It was an unwelcome consequence of the referendum for those who previously enjoyed freedom of movement.
Meanwhile, Spaniards and other European Union nationals can stay in Britain for up to 180 days without a visa.
The limit on the length of time Brits can now stay has affected retired people as well as young people looking to work remotely from Spain for extended periods.
With reporting by AFP
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So sad …. I hope there family is at peace …
Their.
poor lady, still at 66, that’s an admirable way to spend your time, you could live for longer on the couch, but experience much less.
Very sad for her family. Its probably hard for me to grasp the enormity of the area she was hiking in, as I instinctively think ‘just keep going 1 direction, you’ll meet civilization eventually’
Even going in “one direction” becomes a problem in such a large wooded area unless you know how to navigate by the sun or stars. For some reason humans seem pre programmed to wander in circles.
Generally to do with your stride lengths being different, no? Without specific markers we can not walk in straight lines over time, we always gradually move more to the left or right (depends on the person)
So sad, at least her family got closure
She died alone. How awful for her. All the stories and reality documentaries that are shown on T. V. mounts up to nothing when you are alone in a situation such as this.
interesting story. If she had put some effort into having an App like viewranger that would track her location using GPS she would have found her way back to the trail.
You must have missed the part about her not having phone signal . . . Poor lady may she rest in peace.
Dave you’re a idiot.
Dave you muppet, most of those apps won’t function on the Appalachian trail. A compass and map will save you quicker than a crap app on your phone. Oh and have a heart while you’re at it.
you don’t need a phone signal, you have the maps on your phone and the GPS tells you where you are.
Isnt there a compass app for phones?
Hmm, Dave, I wonder did she pack a charger?
a charger would have helped, I wouldn’t even go out for a weekend without having a 3x charger. 80% of people doing the AT carry some kind of GPS these days and the trail itself is very well marked.
Thank you Captain Hindsight!! God bless you!!
Prize idiot.
Dave is right. I hike these trails and I have a app on my iPhone that shows your location by GPS. You won’t get a phone signal but the app works from satellite signals.
There’s no app to fix Dave’s problem.
Indeed and anyone who would trust their life to a cell phone app should not be on the trail. They are good indicators but not exactly safety specced equipment.
A good Personal Locator Beacon connecting with the COSPAS SARSAT is the only way to go. Phone sized radio beacons which will transmit for min 24 hours and cost only C.€250.
Tragic what happened to this lady but hopefully anyone reading this will consider purchasing one of these devices, if they are going into the real wild (or even up our own mountains)
Dave is not an idiot.
GPS has nothing to do with phone signals.
A GPS device communicates directly with satellites orbiting overhead.
A GPS device times the signals from known satellites and works out the exact position ion the ground.
The “constellation” of overhead GPS satellites covers all areas on the earth.
As you might have guessed…….it was once top secret American military technology.
Before mobile phones.
P.S.
This picture showy you what your GPS receiver connects to:
https://lh5.ggpht.com/AUlwKe40rbidPHxZvDKdv-Rt0JawyKJGLwOvSXio21J6Nlg6XxgDFcEM-yNuG1eQVA=h900
Good man Dave . You are a great wealth of information , if a bit insensitive . I am embarrassed for you.
I’ve hiked part of the application trail and while some parts are very well marked others others not. My biggest pet peeve there was the amount of times we ended up following trails but not the correct ones.Im guessing she must have taken a wrong trail somewhere because even in such a vast wilderness the main trail will have a steady stream of hikers. Im glad her family have peace. I wonder will they release the journal.
She was only three or four miles away from the trail.
About an hour’s walk.
She should have “walked the compass and returned if unsuccessful”.
If she marked the spot she was lost and systematically walk 5 miles from her lost point and then returned she could have covered “all points of the compass” (N,S,E,W,NE,SE SW,NW) and reached safety.
Clear thinking.
Tragically…a dirt cheap ($50) GPS device would have saved her…NO phone signal is required for GPS.
A cheap GPS receiver would tell her where she was anywhere on the earth to an accuracy of a meter or two.
That is so sad!! Very brave woman. It must have been very lonely and frightening for her. To know that you’re not getting out alive. Never to see your husband and daughter again!!
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