Spain is planning a raft of measures to address its brewing housing crisis, including an up to 100% tax on properties that non-European Union residents buy. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the plan this week to tackle housing affordability and high rents in the Southern European nation.

Public anger is growing as locals are being priced out of home ownership with rents being driven up by gentrification and landlords shifting to more lucrative, short-term tourist rentals, especially in urban and coastal areas.

One of these measures aims to limit the purchase of homes by non-resident, non-EU foreigners, by making them pay up to 100 per cent of the value of the property they wish to buy in tax. Speaking at a housing forum event, Sanchez warned access to housing has become “one of the main challenges facing European societies, such as the Spanish one”.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said too many people were buying Spanish homes as an investment rather than to live in.

Spain is planning to impose a tax of up to 100% on properties bought by non-residents from countries outside the EU, such as the UK. Announcing the move, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the "unprecedented" measure was necessary to meet the country's housing emergency.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez proposed on Monday a series of measures to tackle a housing crisis in the country, including a 100% tax on

Spain is planning to impose a tax of 100% on homes bought by non-EU residents as it looks to tackle an entrenched housing crisis in the country.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is trying to reign in surging prices for real estate in Spain, and British citizens looking to buy beach houses in the country are set to bear the brunt of one of his flagship policies.