Spain's Golden Visa has ended: what non-EU buyers can do instead
A few years ago, a €500,000 purchase in Marbella came with something beyond the walls written into it: the right to live in Spain. Buy at or above that threshold and the Golden Visa followed. Residency came with the deed. That link has been cut. The same purchase today hands you the property and nothing more. Spain closed its residency-by-investment route on 3 April 2025, with no transitional clause for buyers who come after[1]. The Golden Visa is gone, so for a non-EU buyer the house and the right to live in it are now two separate projects, each planned on its own merits.
Can you still get residency by buying a house in Spain?
No. The change took effect in April 2025 and applies to new purchases at any price. The property carries no immigration benefit now. Your residency and your Costa del Sol purchase are two separate applications, and neither one moves the other forward.
The residency routes that replace it
For most non-EU buyers, including British ones, two routes now do the work the Golden Visa used to do.
The non-lucrative visa is for people who can support themselves in Spain without working here. It asks for proof of passive income of roughly €28,800 a year, plus about €7,200 for each dependent. You also need full private health cover from a Spain-based insurer, with no co-payments[2][3]. The digital-nomad visa is for people still earning, working remotely for companies outside Spain. Its income bar is lower: roughly €2,760 a month[3]. Both figures are as at October 2026; check the current thresholds with your lawyer before you plan around them.
Not everyone clears the non-lucrative bar on passive income alone. That is the honest limit of this route, and the digital-nomad visa exists for earners who fall the other side of it. In both cases, good legal help is what carries an application through the paperwork, rather than the applicant doing it unaided[4].
What the purchase is worth on its own
With residency off the table, some buyers ask whether the Costa del Sol is still worth buying into at all. On the numbers, the market has become easier to buy in, not harder. Foreign demand across Spain cooled by about 13% in the first half of 2026[5]. That has made it more balanced: fewer competing offers, more room to look properly, and buyers who want a place to live rather than a shortcut.
Plan the cost honestly. On a resale in Andalucía, budget roughly 9 to 10% on top of the price for transfer tax, your lawyer, the notary and registry, as at October 2026 (roughly 13 to 14% on a new build). As one Costa property host puts it, the number on the screen is not the number you pay at the end. Buy a villa for the life it gives you, cost it in full, and it stands on its own merits, with or without a visa.
Getting the paperwork right
Non-EU buyers lose money in the gap between what the notary checks and what nobody checks for them. The notary reads and witnesses the deed; the conveyancing is yours to arrange. Two things in particular sit outside the notary’s remit:
- The land registry extract (the nota simple), the only reliable way to confirm the seller actually owns the property and can legally sell it[4].
- The visa and the purchase contracts, where a missed condition or a late document stalls the whole move.
As relocation consultant English John puts it, when something goes wrong in Spain it is never for the price of a parking ticket; it is always going to be a five-to-six-figure mistake. That is the case for bringing your own lawyer in early, before the deposit contract is signed, rather than after a problem surfaces.
Where to start
Begin the residency application as its own project, on its own timeline. Non-lucrative or digital-nomad, start it now and do not wait on a property to trigger it. The standard relocation order puts visa and legal work first, before finance, income and logistics, and that holds even more plainly now that the purchase does nothing for the visa.
Treat the Costa del Sol purchase as a separate decision. If you can, rent for a season before you buy. A rental works as a base camp: you test the neighbourhood and the daily reality of the move while your residency route is already underway. Bring your own lawyer in early, before you sign anything.
If you are weighing a move to the Costa del Sol and want to talk it through, we are happy to have that conversation whenever you are ready.
This article is provided solely for informational purposes, reflecting Northern Estate’s interpretation of current legal frameworks and market practices, which are inherently subject to change. It does not purport to offer, nor should it be interpreted as offering, professional investment, financial, or real estate advice. Individuals considering any form of investment or financial planning in relation to luxury real estate should consult with a qualified professional advisor to tailor advice specifically to their circumstances. Northern Estates has endeavored to ensure the accuracy of the information herein; however, we cannot accept liability for any errors or omissions.
Sources
[1] Government of Spain, ‘Ley Orgánica 1/2025, de 2 de enero, de medidas en materia de eficiencia del Servicio Público de Justicia’, Boletín Oficial del Estado, 3 January 2025 (abolition of the residency-by-investment visa effective 3 April 2025). Available at: https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2025-5
[2] Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Unión Europea y Cooperación, ‘Visado de residencia no lucrativa’, Gobierno de España. Available at: https://www.exteriores.gob.es/
[3] Government of Spain, ‘Ley 28/2022, de 21 de diciembre, de fomento del ecosistema de las empresas emergentes’ (Startups Law, digital-nomad visa), Boletín Oficial del Estado, 22 December 2022. Available at: https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2022-21739
[4] Colegio de Registradores de la Propiedad y Mercantiles de España, ‘Nota simple informativa’, Registradores de España. Available at: https://www.registradores.org/
[5] Spanish Property Insight (2026) ‘Foreign demand falls sharply as Spanish property market shifts down a gear’. Available at: https://www.spanishpropertyinsight.com/2026/10/09/foreign-demand-falls-sharply-as-spanish-property-market-shifts-down-a-gear/