On Thursday April 3rd 2025, Spain officially axed its golden visa, a residency option for non-EU nationals who purchased a Spanish property or properties worth at least €500,000.
The move means there is one less way for third-country nationals to apply to live in Spain, admittedly one only open to those who could afford it.
This leaves the digital nomad visa and the non-lucrative visa as the most tangible visa options available to many citizens from outside of the EU.
Whether or not Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s decision was justified (his reasoning was that wealthy foreign buyers were contributing to rising property prices in Spain), overall it’s bad news for foreigners to have one less Spanish residency option available to them.
But perhaps none more so than Britons. In the four years in which they could apply for the golden visa (after Brexit came into effect in 2021 and they became non-EU nationals), they quickly caught up and became the third main nationality of golden visa holders, as part of a scheme that has been in place since 2013.
The British retirement dream of a home in the Spanish sun is not over (yet, more on that further down), but the golden visa can no longer be harnessed by UK nationals as a way to achieve residency in Spain.
It was in fact the most flexible visa option available to them, as there was no need to spend 183 days in Spain to hold onto residency rights (simply 1 day a year was enough) and thus there was not necessarily the obligation of being a Spanish tax resident either.
READ MORE: Golden visa cancellation spells end of Spain's 'best' residency option
By contrast, Spain’s non-lucrative visa (NLV), the only retirement visa now available to Britons, does have these time and fiscal constraints.
Crucially, the end of Spain’s golden visa serves as a reminder for UK nationals in Spain and those hoping to move here of what it means to no longer be part of the EU club.
When Spanish authorities perceive that foreign influence is impacting the country negatively, they’re far more likely to implement legislation directed at citizens that aren’t part of the European Union.
We’re now seeing it as well with new proposals by PM Sánchez to either impose a supertax on non-EU non-resident property buyers or completely prevent them from buying homes in Spain if they don’t have any family links with the country.
If either of these measures were to come to fruition, many Britons could wave goodbye to the idea of owning a home in Spain, even if it were to spend 90 out of 180 days there.
EU nationals in fact buy many more second homes in Spain than non-EU nationals, but Spain’s EU membership makes it nearly impossible for them to pass any laws which could hinder the free movement of people and capital within the bloc, especially if it affects EU citizens.
Up to now, when it came to the post-Brexit prospect of moving to Spain, the main ‘victims’ have been young Britons and those with fewer financial means, as options such as the Erasmus scheme or finding an English teaching job once in Madrid, Valencia or Málaga are no longer possible. Those were benefits of being an EU citizen that have now been lost.
In essence, Brexit made a move to Spain only viable for those wealthy enough to afford it, with enough financial resources to support oneself through the NLV or golden visa, or a high-earning freelance job to give them access to the newer digital nomad visa.
But the cancellation of Spain’s golden visa proves that even affluent Spain-bound Britons are also at the mercy of Spanish legislation since the UK ceased to be part of EU.
It seems that money can’t buy everything post-Brexit, at least not a golden visa for a life in the sun in Spain.
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