With summer fast approaching, there are recently opened hotels and resorts in Greece to consider. From popular escapes such as Mykonos and Santorini to the lesser-known islands across the Aegean chain, here are five new Greek hotels worth checking out—and into.
Spain Announces The End Of Its Golden Visa Program
09.04.2024 - 15:33 / forbes.com
Spain, one of the Europe’s most popular and successful granters of residency by investment, better known as Golden Visa, has decided to eliminate the program.
According to the government’s official announcement, the controversial scheme that permits wealthy foreigners to buy residence rights by investing is being axed mainly to curb property speculation and “toensure that housing is a right and not just a speculative business.”
Isabel Rodríguez , the Housing Minister, explained to the Ministers Council on April 9 that since the measure launched in 2013, the country has granted 14,576 "golden visas" corresponding to so-called investments in real estate, benefiting mainly foreign citizens from China, Russia, the U.K., U.S., Ukraine, Iran, Venezuela and Mexico.
According to the minister, the number of applications has accelerated over the past two years, with 2,017 visas approved in 2022, 3,273 in 2023 and 424 in February 2024.
In fact, this significant increase has triggered the Government's alarm and led it to put an end to the golden visa scheme altogether.
The program allowing non-European Union citizens to get Spanish residency by buying real estate for at least €500,000 has contributed to making housing prices unaffordable for local residents, particularly young would-be buyers and especially in popular cities including Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga, the Balearic Islands, Alicante and Valencia, which face serious housing crunches and where 90% of the visas have been granted.
“In these cities with highly stressed housing markets, it is almost impossible to find decent places to live for those who live and work there and pay their taxes every day,” said Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, adding that as of this week, his government will take the first steps toward eliminating the Golden Visas that have become a target of national and international controversy — and a tricky political issue.
“This is not the model of a country that we need — one of speculative investment in housing — because it is a model that leads us to disaster and, above all, to lacerating inequality,” Sanchez added.
Last year, the government considered doubling to €1 million the minimum amount of investment required instead of abolishing the Golden Visa altogether.
As affordable housing became a top public concern, with soaring housing costs pushing local residents out of their neighborhoods, the Golden Visa is seen as politically toxic, creating divisions inside the coalition government and increasing pressure to end the scheme.
The age at which young people leave their parents' home in Spain rose to 30 last year compared to the E.U. average of 26, according to the OECD, and cited by Business Insider.
“Young people in Spain struggle to
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