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🏠 This Week in Spain: 'Xenophobic' Housing Reform

Also: more dumb religion-related controversies and a Spanish eagle handler gets fired.

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | January 16, 2025 | Madrid | Issue #85

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đŸ„œ This Week in a Nutshell: It’s a bad week for non-EU foreigners aiming to buy property in Spain because, if a new bill proposed by the government is passed, they will be imposed a tax of up to 100% on homes they buy. Will it, though? Read more to find out!

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No Costa del Sol for you!

Sánchez’s New Housing Reform Has British Buyers—or at Least Their Tabloids—Seeing Red 😡

Time to start considering Bristol as an option for your second home, eh?

This week, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a 12-point housing reform with the aim of addressing Spain’s society-breaking housing crisis (as in, Spaniards can’t afford to buy or rent houses)—and saving his popularity, and government, in the process. “The West faces a decisive challenge: to not become a society divided into two classes, the rich landlords and poor tenants,” Sánchez told an economic forum in Madrid.

  • Spain’s lack of accessible housing is a massive issue. As we’ve noted before, 66% of young people 18-34 in Spain live in their parental home, compared to 50% in 2010. Salaries have gone up less than 20% since 2015 while home prices have gone up over 50% in Madrid, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. Spain’s central bank says that the country faces a 600,000 housing unit deficit. But barely 90,000 new units are being built yearly, less than half the numbers in the 1990s.

  • So, like many reforms, it’s a noble idea—the question is whether SĂĄnchez’s plan would work, and whether it’s politically possible.

Now that we got that out of the way, what does SĂĄnchez wanna do? Many of the 12 points the PM announced Monday are versions of previous ideas, made more urgent by recent protests demanding 50% rent cuts and threatening rent strikes. Here are a few:

  • New public housing company. The transfer of more than 3,300 homes and almost 2 million m2 of residential land to the newly created Public Housing Company, for the construction of protected housing, and the incorporation of more than 30,000 homes held in Spain’s “bad bank” (SAREB), 13,000 of them during this first half of 2025.

  • Tax break on cheap rent. A 100% tax break on income from apartments that landlords rent at the government’s suggested reference level (way below market). We wrote about this quasi-rent-control scheme before.

  • Punishment for tourist rentals. Tourist flat owners would pay VAT (up to 21%) on income from their rentals. The government would also tighten regulations around fraud in seasonal rentals and create a fund for regional and municipal governments to increase inspections of illegal tourist housing.

But, but, but
 Those weren’t the headline news. The point that set the fires burning (and got all the headlines), dear reader, was Sánchez’s plan to levy a tax of up to 100% on property purchases by non-residents from countries outside the EU. The reason? According to Sánchez, such people bought 27,000 of the 600,000 or so sold in 2024, "not to live in [but] to make money from, which, in the context we are in, we obviously cannot allow.”

But seriously, will the proposal help Spain beat its housing crisis? Honestly, probably not—for a variety of reasons. The construction and real estate industry, as well as right-of-center parties, are complaining, as would be expected, but they do agree on one point worth making: that the reforms focus on regulating prices on the little available housing there is, but do very little to address the housing deficit by building or attracting new units to the market.

  • Too small. Referring to the proposal as “nonsense”, Colliers’s Spain and Portugal CEO Mikel Echavarren calls going after the 27,000 properties bought by foreigners "a drop in the ocean” compared to the 600,000 sold each year.

  • Wrong target—and too slow. For Francisco Iñareta of the real estate portal Idealista, the proposals follow the same path that has led to Spain’s housing emergency: “tax increases for international investors, increased sanctions for property owners, and plans that won’t offer new housing for another 3-4 years. “The worrying lack of supply in the market requires incentives to bring back as many properties as possible,” he added. “And it seems that this objective has become secondary in the government's attempt to set prices.”

That may not even matter. The usual fight between the property industry (which wants lower taxes and easier permitting) and left-of-center politicians (who want to appease public anger by forcing greedy landlords to cut rents) is to be expected—and a good argument to have. But the outcome of that argument may not even matter here.

  • Why? Because almost half the proposals will need to go through parliament, where SĂĄnchez struggles mightily to build a majority for even the least divisive bills. A 100% tax on sales to non-EU foreigners or IVA on tourist rentals? Probably not anytime soon.

More news below. 👇👇

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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week

1. ⚖ SĂĄnchez judicial reform isn’t about his family. Honestly

PM Sánchez proposed a pretty major judicial reform at the end of last week that would, if passed, likely benefit his family and government. Actually, he didn’t present it. Patxi López, his PSOE party’s parliamentary speaker, presented the bill on a Friday, alone, without any support from the parties it would need to pass. Which gives you an idea how it went over: badly.

But before we explain what the PSOE wants and why, let’s explain what’s behind the bill.

  • Freelance accusations. One of the great oddities of Spain’s justice system, in our view, is the “popular accusation” (acusacion popular) recognized in Article 125 of the Spanish constitution. In simple terms, it allows a private person or group to make legal accusations in cases in which they are not directly involved or affected (unlike in the U.S., for example, where the plaintiff must have “standing”). The concept is pretty (or maybe totally) unique to Spain.

  • Nuisances—but not always. Because most anyone can file a lawsuit this way using things like newspaper articles for evidence, many are nuisance suits that are quickly dismissed (the group Manos Limpias — Clean Hands — has made a kind of career of getting its suits dismissed). Which explains why both the PSOE and PP have tried to regulate them at various times. But proponents of the acusaciĂłn popular say it's a vital tool in calling out government corruption (which Spain has had plenty of). If a newspaper uncovers wrongdoing but prosecutors don’t follow up on the news (out of being politically compromised, for example), shouldn’t we let “the people” bring suit?

PSOE reform to stop ‘harassment through abusive judicial actions.’ The reform proposed by the PSOE would prohibit political parties and groups linked to them from bringing acusación popular suits (to harass their opponents); prohibit suits based on newspaper clippings; recuse judges who make statements in favor of a political party; and eliminate the crime of insulting religious sentiments.

  • Yes, but
 In a calm political situation, most parties could agree to limit the most frivolous suits (judge speech limits are trickier). But there’s something else going on here. Besides the last bit—which basically decriminalizes critical religious speech—the other three parts have one thing in common: they would help SĂĄnchez’s family and government disentangle themselves from the legal difficulties they face.

  • Which are
 SĂĄnchez’s wife Begoña faces an influence-peddling investigation: his brother David is facing something similar; and his attorney general, Álvaro GarcĂ­a OrtĂ­z faces a Supreme Court investigation into his possible revelation of confidential citizen data. All based on acusaciones populares.

That’s why they’re calling it the Ley Begoña. Because it could end all these suits retroactively, the bill was attacked by anyone who’s not in the PSOE. We won’t bore you with a list (here’s one), but let’s just say those on the right called it “an outrage,” “a first step towards a silent dictatorship,” “an attack on the legal system”. Madrid Presi (and Spain’s Troll Queen) Isabel Diaz Ayuso said, “The Ley Begoña is a preventative amnesty for SĂĄnchez’s family and the attorney general.” Judge and prosecutor groups didn’t like it either. Even parties allied to SĂĄnchez didn’t offer support (they weren’t even consulted, after all).

  • Un-like-ly. The broad rejection suggests this bill just won’t see the light of day.

2. đŸ—łïž Could Vox and Junts join forces to oust SĂĄnchez?

PP leader Alberto Nuñez FeijĂło got so wound up by the Ley Begoña (see #1 👆) he compared SĂĄnchez to former dictator Francisco Franco (who doesn’t like a little overstatement?) and said he was open to promoting a motion of censure to remove SĂĄnchez from office and call for general elections if far-right Vox and Catalan separatist Junts decided to join him.

  • Ridiculous, right? Vox wouldn’t normally be caught dead datingvoting with Junts because they consider the Catalan separatists the literal devil, and while the PP is center-right like Junts (whose predecessor CIU was basically the PP in Catalonia) it would almost never be caught voting with them because while they don’t think Junts are the devil, they do think they are very, very bad.

But strange times make for strange bedfellows. That’s a clichĂ©, but also true here. As in, reacting to FeijĂło’s offer, Vox party leader Santiago Abascal has said he’d be open to voting with the PP and Junts due to the “gravity” of the situation—and as long as they don’t make any concessions to the pro-independence bloc (of course).

But that doesn’t mean Sánchez it out of the woods—not by a long shot. That’s because (as we wrote in December) Junts is unhappy with the PSOE for not living up to their investiture deal—which was basically that Junts would vote to make Sánchez PM again if the PSOE gave them tons of stuff, including amnesty for Carles Puigdemont, the former regional president/“chubby Beatle” who fled to Brussels to avoid prison for his role in running the illegal secession referendum in 2017.

  • This has not happened. Puigdemont is still holed up in Brussels because the Supreme Court decided the amnesty didn’t apply to the embezzlement charges he faces.

To make their unhappiness clear. The separatist party last month registered a parliamentary initiative to demand Sánchez call a confidence vote—which, if he lost would mean he’d have to resign and the King would name a new PM candidate—but the PSOE is not having any of that. In fact, the PSOE-controlled parliamentary board “postponed” the debate of the initiative back in December, and did so again today.

  • You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry. Junts has now warned that if the government once again postpones the proposal (as it has), it will break ties with the coalition government definitively. “Decisions will have to be made that the PSOE will not like,” said Junts secretary general Jordi Turull.

  • Scary meeting! In fact, Puigdemont has called a meeting tomorrow with his party’s executive members to analyze today’s decision by the government regarding the initiative, a meeting that will “shape the future of the legislature”.

Whistling past the graveyard. The socialists say the proposal “makes no sense”, but are aware that the refusal to meet Puigdemont’s demands could result in Junts withholding their support for the 2025 budget (and anything else) so they are asking the separatists to negotiate.

  • What about this shiny thing? In fact, they are hoping that the Ley Begoña will be incentive enough for Puigdemont to back down, as it would benefit him, since the current wording of the law would likely allow him to return to Spain with the prospect of having the charges against him dismissed.

  • Fool me twice
 But Junts insists that the Socialists “have deceived us up until now, so we won’t settle for smokescreens like that judicial reform.”

What will happen? Some political leaders in PSOE coalition partner Sumar are certain Puigdemont is bluffing. But Puigdemont has little faith in Sånchez (or the Ley Begoña), so this game of chicken may end up with a crash.

3. 🏱 Fistfight of biblical proportions over squat in high-end Madrid building

Whose apartment is it anyway? Imagine this—you show up to the apartment you’ve just bought to find a family already in it. Or take the flip side: You get a knock on the door from someone saying they own the apartment you’ve bought and are already occupying. Quite the quandary, no? Well, that’s what’s been happening in a new high-end building in Madrid’s southern district of Carabanchel.

But things are not as simple as they appear. The families who occupied the apartments, mostly of Peruvian descent, claim that they were scammed into thinking they were legal residents.

  • We paid! Some of them say they provided “large sums of money [in one case €3,000] and an ID” and after signing a “fake contract” they were allowed to move in. The people who offered them the apartments, they say, came from a “rental website”, and they blame a “mafia” that targeted them because they were desperate for a house—and that had found a way to access the building and change the locks.

  • Nope. The property’s legal residents (around 100), however, are not buying it—they say this is what the squatters have been told to say. “They haven’t been scammed. They knew they were becoming squatters and now they say they had no idea. Quite a bargain they got,” one of the legal buyers said.

This conflict has led to, um, problems between the groups. The legal residents complain of “loud noises and in-fighting”, with the police being called constantly. Also, the elevators have been broken (only one is operational) and there’s the presence of “blood on the walls” because “they keep fighting each other”. Um, blood on the walls? đŸ©ž

Eviction fisticuffs. Then the whole kerfuffle became national news when one of Spain’s (in)famous squatter removal services showed up last week to try to forcibly evict the squatters and it ended in a fistfight of biblical proportions (see video above).

  • Silver lining. After the first move failed, another company was called in to try a different (and gentler) approach: rather than trying to use force, they negotiated with the squatters and let them know that if they left the apartments all charges would be dropped. With this carrot, they managed to vacate two of the apartments (so now we’re down to 26!). It’s the little victories that count.

Madrid mayor JosĂ© Luis MartĂ­nez Almeida chimed in last week after the story broke, saying that the law must be changed so squatters can be removed “in 24 to 48 hours” and that all those who claim Spain doesn’t have a “squatting problem” should take note.

The story once again sheds light on Spain’s long-running (and, while justified, likely overblown) fear of squatters, which often translates into landlords adding draconian clauses in rental contracts to cover their backs

  • 15,000 a year. According to the most recent studies, over 15,000 squatting accusations were made in Spain in 2023 (though there may be many more).

  • Things may change soon, as an amendment to article 795.1 of the Criminal Procedure Law passed last year and that is now in the Senate plans to make it possible to remove squatters from a property in 15 days through expedited trials.

4. 🩅 Españoles en el mundo: Italia

The Italian Serie A football team S.S. Lazio has one of the best mascots in the world—a bald eagle. As in a real, living bald eagle named Olympia that is sent soaring around Stadio Olimpico on game days. And you know what you need when you set a bird of prey free in a stadium? A falconer or, perhaps better, an eagler. And since 2010, Olympia’s eagler has been the Spaniard Juan BernabĂ©, from CĂĄdiz.

But that is where the happy part of this story ends. Because Lazio fired BernabĂ© on Monday 😭. With a press release and all. So no more eagle for now. Our hearts are broken 💔.

  • But why? Well, how to say this gently? Okay, we can’t. It’s just
 fine, here it is: BernabĂ© recently announced that he was going to undergo an operation to solve an erectile dysfunction problem that had been caused by a fall from a horse. Which is fine. Then he underwent the operation under the direction of one of Lazio's doctors, urologist Gabriele Antonini. Which is also fine. Then after the operation he published a video on his socials in which he showed off his erect penis thanks to the new implant. Which apparently was not fine.

  • BernabĂ© and Antonini were quickly fired. "Both of them violated the ethical code that governs Lazio,” said Lazio owner (and Italian senator) Claudio Lotito. “I have not missed a single mass in 67 years, I behave irreproachably at all levels, I fight for change and for values, and they behave like this?"

That’s
it? That would be the whole story except for the fact that BernabĂ© is an extreme sharer. Before and after his firing he hit the media—and how.

  • Pro-sex. “I had surgery to improve my sexual performance because I am very active,” he told a radio program, noting that it was “for medical reasons” and he doesn’t see why people relate his video with pornography. Oh, and the implant lets him have sex for as long as he wants, he told La Repubblica, which “opens unknown horizons” for a couple.

  • It’s for my homies. "I did it to give a signal and courage to the many people who have the same problem,“ he said in La Repubblica. “It is a very delicate subject, men are ashamed, impotence is a taboo and society judges you.”

  • We’re like this in CĂĄdiz. “I grew up in a healthy, clean, non-judgemental family that taught me to have a healthy relationship with my body and with sex. My genitals are like my hands. They are part of my body,” he also told La Repubblica. “I come from Cadiz, Spain, where there is a beautiful beach. We have always been nudists.”

Your sharing almost had us. But then there’s that Il Duce thing. BernabĂ© was fired (temporarily) once before, in 2021, for making the fascist salute and chanting “¡Duce, duce!” with some Lazio fans (Lazio ultras have a historic reputation for far-right chants and signs). Afterwards, he said he wasn’t a fascist, just a Vox supporter. And, well, “Mussolini? I admire him a lot.”

  • Juan Bernabé—A Spaniard in the world.

5. 👀 Dumb Controversy of the Week: This party poster

Pink likes to sing that God is a DJ, and in this particular case, she’s right because as you can see in the image above, that one-eyed Jesus is having a hell of a time with those turntables.

The ones not enjoying this at all, however, are the members of the Association of Christian Lawyers, who have moved on from last week’s scandal surrounding a heifer and a holy card and are now going after the “controversial” poster promoting a party taking place this weekend in Mallorca.

First, the facts. What in God’s name is that party and how can I attend?

  • Saint Sebastian (Sant SebastiĂ ) is the patron saint of Palma, the capital of Mallorca. Back in the 1500s, the city was ravaged by a plague until someone allegedly brought a piece of bone from Saint Sebastian’s arm to the island and poof! No more plague! Every year since, Palma has celebrated with a weeklong party that involves giant dragons, demons running around and medieval battle reenactments. The whole thing ends on Jan. 19, with multiple “alternative” parties and a popular fireworks show.

  • One of these “alternative” parties, sponsored by far-left Podemos, is La Santa Punxada — Sant SebastiĂ  Q+, which has become national news due to its, ahem, racy poster (above, in part). The artwork not only depicts Jesus as a DJ, but it also shows Saint Sebastian and a female saint being harassed by demons (and enjoying it 😾!).

  • The most offensive part (if you are offended by sexual lunchmeat jokes) can be found here: that is, Saint Sebastian’s penis was replaced with a sobrasada (a traditional delicacy from the Balearic Islands). This was not on our bingo cards.

Enter the Association of Christian Lawyers, which was so outraged by the poster it announced it was filing a lawsuit against the Podemos party leader in Palma, councilwoman Lucía Muñoz, and Lluïsa Febrer, the artist responsible for creating the poster. Because oh-my-god-how-could-you!

  • The organization claims Podemos may have committed “an offense of mockery and another of hate”. Its president, Polonia Castellanos, argues that “this is a gratuitous and unnecessary attack to promote a musical event. Once again, it reflects the sense of impunity that exists in Spain when Catholics are targeted.”

  • Barfs all around. Palma’s PP mayor Jaime MartĂ­nez has referred to the poster as “vomitive”, while far-right Vox has also filed a lawsuit against it.

Podemos is not having any of this and has responded that the poster will not be taken down. In fact, councilwoman Muñoz has said that Saint Sebastian has been a “gay" icon” and “controversial saint for more than 600 years” who was “depicted as an eroticized figure” and was “celebrated by the LGBTQ+ community for a long time”.

  • Payback time. Muñoz added that their decision to organize an alternative Q+ party this year was made because the PP-led Town Hall “fell short in promoting equality and diversity in its festival programming”.

  • Former Podemos Equality Minister Irene Montero also chimed in (as she does), tweeting/exing that what really offends the Christian Lawyers is “that LGBTQ+ people in Palma have a safe space to be themselves
 Never again silent or invisible.” She did not mention the sobrasada.

In the meantime, our sources in Palma (because we do have them) are telling us that all of this unexpected promotion of this Sunday’s party is creating a lot of hype and organizers are expecting a large turnout.đŸ•ș 🎉

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