UK could face Spain-style holiday home tax as Brits ‘back 100% tax’

On Monday (January 13), Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced plans to begin heavily taxing foreign buyers looking to purchase second homes in the country, in a bid to tackle its housing affordability issues and high rents.

Those in favour of the proposal believe a significant part of the housing problem comes from relatively expensive properties being snapped up by non-residents – including Brits – and let out as short-term holiday homes or Airbnbs, leaving a lack of affordable housing for locals. 

However, the UK could also be at risk of this second home revolt.

A new YouGov poll carried out on 4,844 GB adults on January 14 suggests that 53% of Brits support introducing a similar 100% tax in the UK. 

However, a property expert, who has previously called for the existing 2% stamp duty purchase on foreign buyers to be doubled to “level the playing field” for Brits has insisted a similar 100% tax would “kill the property market overnight” and stop wealthy foreigners from investing their money in the UK.

“I’m not in favour of that – it’s got to be fair,” said Jonathan Rolande, spokesman for the National Association of Property Buyers (NAPB) according to MailOnline. “You want to keep foreign investment in this country and foreign people coming here to live, work and spend money.”

Former Lib Dem leader Vince Cable has also backed higher taxes for non-UK residents buying property in the UK. He added that he supported Spain’s proposal “in principle” but warned that work was needed to ensure the policy would not scare off foreign investors. 

“When they come they bring their managers who want to buy property to live in. So we need to be careful,” Cable said.

In Spain, however, a British expat living in Marbella – who runs a prestige property agency Cloud Nine Spain – warned people in favour of such a tax to be “careful what they wish for,” as it risks alienating the very people who had “helped to create wealth” for the ordinary voters now demanding change. 

Many residents critical of the current tourism model in Spain took to the streets to express their anger in various protests across the country last year. They voiced their frustration of being unable to afford to live in their own cities. 

In 2024, Spain welcomed a record-breaking 94 million foreigners who spent some £106 billion during their stays, with even more expected to come in 2025, according to Hereu. 

In April 2024, mass protests began in the Canary Islands, with coordinated demonstrations across the archipelago with up to 50,000-strong crowds. Then in May, 10,000 people protested in Majorca, with other protests occurring on the smaller islands of Menorca and Ibiza. 

In July, a 3,000-strong protest in Barcelona saw a small group of demonstrators use tape to seal hotel exits, cordon off restaurants, and even spray tourists with water guns – a move later criticised by Tourism Minister Jordi Hereu.

Sanchez noted that in 2023 alone, non-residents from outside of the EU bought 27,000 houses and flats in Spain, “not to live in them, but mainly to speculate”, adding that in the context of shortages, this is something that “we cannot afford”.