Foreigners blamed by both extremes of Spanish politics for the housing crisis

It seems that when it comes to Spain’s housing woes, both ends of the political spectrum can agree on at least one thing: foreigners make an easy scapegoat.

This week, political party Vox joined the chorus calling for higher taxes on foreign property buyers. The far-right party has proposed a new levy on foreign purchasers, with the proceeds supposedly funding tax breaks and subsidised housing for Spaniards. The stated aim is to stop what they describe as a “mass acquisition of housing” by foreign capital, which they claim is pricing Spaniards—especially young people—out of the market.

In their words, the rate of home ownership among young Spaniards has fallen from 56% to 27% over the last two decades, while foreign purchases have risen from 7.6% in 2007 to 19.3% in 2025. Vox calls this an “expulsion effect” and says it wants to “protect Spaniards from speculation and the massive purchase of homes by foreign fortunes and funds.” They are echoing the socialist Spanish President Pedro Sánchez who claims that all foreign buyers are “speculators”.

A familiar tune from the other side

What’s striking is how much this sounds like the rhetoric of the hard left, which also loves to talk about “speculators” and “foreign funds” hoovering up Spanish property. The far left blames foreign investors and holiday-home buyers for rising prices and falling rental supply—sometimes even calling for outright bans on foreign purchases. Vox, meanwhile, wants to hit them with extra taxes. The ideological packaging is different, but the impulse is the same.

The real problem lies closer to home

Foreign buyers do play a visible role in certain markets—coastal resort areas in particular—but they are not the reason housing has become unaffordable in Madrid, Barcelona, or Seville. The real culprits are chronic undersupply, suffocating regulation, high transaction costs, and years of policy failure. Instead of building more homes, streamlining planning rules, or cutting taxes on construction and renovation, politicians of all stripes find it easier to point the finger at foreigners.

Blaming outsiders may win votes, but it won’t build a single new home.