It is a fact that more and more foreigners buy homes in Spain. Specifically, these operations account for 13% of purchase operations, according to the 2018 Registry. As a general rule, the mortgage contracting conditions are influenced by the economic profile of the applicant, the characteristics of the property and the environment in which you are.
Since 2013, non-EU citizens who buy a home in Spain can obtain a 2-year residence permit (renewable) as long as the real estate investment is at least 500,000 euros (Golden Visa).
It is necessary to emphasize the fact that a mortgage cannot be used to finance the purchase (or at least not for the first 500,000 euros), and that the house has to be free of charges.
On the other hand, those 500,000 euros do not have to come from a single source. For example, you could buy a house and a garage as long as the sum of both amounts is greater than 500,000 euros.
Therefore, after investing that minimum amount in the country, you can start the process of applying for your legal residence, something that can be processed directly from Spain after entering the country as a tourist (you will have a total of 3 months to buy the home and apply for this residency).
Main requirements
The most important requirement that must be met for the application to be valid is to prove the real estate investment. This is done with the certificate of the Property Registry, and the deed that proves the purchase of the property.
If you want to obtain residence after buying a property, you will have to take out private health insurance with a Spanish company. Normally the costs are around 50 and 70 euros per month, although you can find discounts for families.
In addition, you will have to present your criminal record certificate, demonstrating the absence of any type of crime. You should also take into account that all foreign documents must be legalized and legally translated into Spanish.
Application process
The process is divided into 2 different steps: the residence application, and obtaining the residence card in physical format.
Therefore, in the first step there are 2 different options to complete the application process. No matter which of the 2 options you choose, the process will always begin with the purchase of the home.
- Apply for the visa from your country origin
While still in your country of origin, the first thing you have to apply for is a visa, which would be granted for one year.
Once you get this visa, you will be able to travel and enter Spain, where you are allowed to exchange this one-year visa for a two-year residence permit.
- Apply for a residence permit from Spain
You can apply for this investment residence while you are already in Spain (as a tourist, with a student visa, or with any other residence permit), without the need to previously apply for a visa at the consulate.
This would be recommended, since you would get your resolution much faster.
Advantages of residence for purchase of real estate
This type of permit was created with the main objective of attracting foreign investment to the country. Therefore, it offers a wide variety of advantages compared to the rest of Spanish permits:
The resolution is very fast. By being able to apply for this visa directly from Spain during the 3-month stay as a tourist, the application process is quite simple, being able to obtain a favorable response in less than 25-30 days. In addition, this residence will give you the possibility to live and work legally in the country, since it implies a work permit.
You can easily include your relatives in the application and move to Spain with them (since they would also obtain residency simply because you as the main applicant meet all the requirements).
The vast majority of permits in the country are granted for 1 year, while residence for property buyers is granted for 2 years (renewable as long as you maintain your investment in the country).
The years with this visa count for permanent residence (which can be obtained after 5 years in the country) and for Spanish nationality (after 10 years).
To renew this visa for the purchase of real estate, it is not necessary to stay for a long period of time or become a resident, something that is required for the rest of the permits.
Get your physical card (TIE)
Once you are in Spain with your visa or residence permit, the next and last steps are:
1. Register with the town hall (something called “empadronamiento”)
2. Visit the immigration office and register your fingerprints so that they can issue your physical residence card (called TIE).
