Spain's golden visa is gone: what the closure means for holders and newcomers

What happened and why it matters

For more than a decade Spain ran one of Europe's best known residence by investment routes. Buying property worth at least EUR 500,000 was the popular way in, though it was never the only one. That door is now shut.

Ley Orgánica 1/2025, of 2 January, on measures for the efficiency of the Public Justice Service, was published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado on 3 January 2025 and came into force on 3 April 2025. According to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the law eliminates articles 63 to 67 of Law 14/2013, the Entrepreneurs Law, and residence visas for investors are abolished as a result.

The government's press office was explicit on 2 April 2025. The measure ends residence visas for investors in Spain, and it covers property and the other investment types too.

That matters to investors in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Many bought Spanish property partly for the residence it brought, and many families hold permits that will come up for renewal.

The rules: before and after

The investment categories below are the ones the Spanish consulate in Miami lists for the former investor visa. Every one of them is closed to new applicants.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sets out three transitional rules:

• Applications filed before 3 April 2025 are decided under the rules in force when they were filed.
• Investor visas and authorisations that were valid on that date stay valid for the period they were issued for.
• Renewal requests are decided under the rules in force when the initial authorisation was granted.

Who it suits and who it does not

The transitional rules protect people already in the system. If you held a valid permit on 3 April 2025, or had filed a complete application by then, the old framework still covers you.

Anyone starting from scratch is in a different position. A property purchase, a bond portfolio or a bank deposit, however large, no longer leads to residence in Spain on its own. If anyone still offers you Spanish property with residence attached, the law has moved on and the sales material has not.

Some official routes remain, and each asks you to do something in Spain rather than simply invest there. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs still offers an entrepreneur visa, for foreign nationals who move to Spain to develop an innovative entrepreneurial activity of special economic interest to Spain. Applicants need a residence and work authorisation issued by the Large Companies and Strategic Groups Unit of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration. The visa is valid for one year. A spouse or registered partner, dependent children and dependent parents may apply as family members.

The Law on the Promotion of the Start-up Ecosystem, published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado on 22 December 2022, also created a special visa for digital nomads: people who work in Spain, for themselves or for employers anywhere in the world. According to the government, the same law extended the validity of initial residence authorisations for entrepreneurs, investors and foreign students.

Costs and timelines

The closure came in stages, and each date is on the official record:

• 9 April 2024: the Council of Ministers considered a report on removing the residence benefits linked to residential property. The housing minister said 94 of every 100 golden visas were linked to property investment, and that 14,576 property linked golden visas had been granted since the 2013 law.
• 3 January 2025: Ley Orgánica 1/2025 was published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado.
• 3 April 2025: the law came into force and investor residence visas were abolished.

The official sources we reviewed set no separate renewal fee for existing investor authorisations, so we give none here.

What it means in practice

Take a hypothetical Dubai based family office principal, a non EU national, who bought a EUR 600,000 apartment in Málaga in 2023. She obtained an investor authorisation and listed her husband and two dependent children as family members.

Her authorisation stays valid for the period it was issued for. When she renews, Spain will apply the rules that were in force when her first authorisation was granted. Her practical task is to keep the investment and her records in order well before the renewal date.

Now take her business partner, who planned to buy a similar property in 2026 to obtain Spanish residence. The purchase will no longer give him residence. If he wants to live in Spain he would have to fit another category, such as an innovative business that qualifies for the entrepreneur route, or remote work under the digital nomad visa. Each has its own conditions and its own assessment.

What to watch

Renewals are the next pressure point. The official guidance says existing authorisations keep their original term and that renewals follow the original rules. How consulates and the migration authorities apply that to individual files is a separate matter, and the guidance cannot tell you.

The government also presented the closure as the first step in a wider housing strategy. Any further housing measures would sit outside residence law, but they could matter to the same buyers.

Finally, the remaining business routes are assessed case by case. If you are based in the UAE, Mauritius or the Seychelles and weighing Spain, treat the entrepreneur and digital nomad visas as decisions about where you will live and work. Before you pay anyone to advise on the move, ask which of the two routes they think you qualify for, and on what evidence.