The other countries set to follow Spain and declare war on Brits’ holiday homes: France, Greece and Portugal among the EU nations looking to take action as war on tourists and expats threatens to explode across the continent

The Spanish government’s shock plans to tax foreign buyers looking to buy homes has stunned British hopefuls dreaming of retiring by the sea.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the plan on Monday to tackle housing affordability and high rents in the Southern European nation, saying a package of 12 proposals were aimed at providing ‘more housing, better regulation and greater aid’.

Like most rich countries, Spain is in the throes of a growing housing affordability problem. Skyrocketing rents are particularly acute in cities like Barcelona and Madrid, where incomes have failed to keep up, especially for young people. 

Housing prices are also steadily rising, especially in cities and coastal areas where many foreign buyers – including Brits – have snapped up relatively expensive properties for speculation or to let out as short-stay holiday homes through the summer.

Spain is one of the worst hit by demand for vacation properties, welcoming more than 88.5 million visitors in 2024 alone. ‘Overtourism’ is felt by locals desperate to afford their own homes, increasingly taking to the streets to demand action. But Spaniards are not alone in their battle for affordable housing and sustainable tourism practices.

In Portugal, similar problems with short-term holiday rentals and a shortage of affordable housing has seen residents mobilise in cities across the country with banners decrying: ‘I have to choose between paying for a house or eating.’

France took steps late last year to temper growing frustration over the availability of housing, passing a long-awaited bill to tighten regulations on the short-term tourist rental market. The number of such rentals grew from 300,000 to 1.2 million between 2016 and 2024.

Tourists are also flocking further east in search of less expensive accommodation and properties to buy as summer homes or medium-term investments. The Greek government was pressed to act last year, announcing a sweeping ban on short-term rental licences in three central districts in Athens due to ‘a lot of pressure on society’.

Spain has set the tone with an ambitious list of policy proposals focused on reforming the construction industry, ensuring affordable rentals and offering incentives to those who follow renting guidelines.

Contentiously, the package includes an up to 100 per cent tax on properties bought by non-European Union residents, which would include Brits.

British buyers have long been receptive to Spain’s offer of luxury villas in the sun for a fraction of the price of what they might pay in the UK.

These are not necessarily the ‘affordable’ homes demanded by ordinary working Spaniards. But foreign buyers speculating on property on have not helped the sentiment that residents are being short-changed to accommodate overseas investors. 

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’.

He said this was ‘something that, in the context of the shortages we are experiencing, we cannot afford’.

The abrupt response from the government is part of a wider trend of leaders hurriedly trying to respond to growing malaise with perceived over-tourism and a lack of decent, affordable housing.

With demonstrations growing across the continent, other dream destinations may soon be pressed to follow suit. 

Fury erupted in Greece last year, as messages appeared scrawled on walls in Athens ahead of the main summer rush. One read: ‘Tourists Go Home! Greek State Kills’.

Another showed a large building depicting two ‘Airbnb’ towers ablaze, beneath the caption: ‘Tourists Enjoy Your Stay In The Cemetery Of Europe’. 

Furious protesters also took to the streets of the Greek capital to voice their outrage at the rising numbers of tourists flooding their home.

Demonstrators chanted: ‘They are taking our houses while they live in the Maldives’ – a reference to wealthier homeowners who advertise their homes on Airbnb.

Anna Theodorakis, a local resident who was forced out of her home in Metaxourgio, Athens, told France24 at the time that the situation in the bustling city was becoming ‘very depressing’.

‘I think the answer is to go in the streets and block everything and just not do something because people are losing their homes,’ she said.

Greece, welcoming 32 million visitors in 2023, has been loathe to relay officials messages turning back foreign guests.

Tourism contributes between 62.8billion euros (£52.9billion/$29.3billion) and 75.6billion euros (£63.6billion/$83.4billion) to the Greek economy, roughly a third of gross domestic product annually, according to the Hellenic Tourism Business Association (Insete). 

But in September last year, the government did announce a ban on short-term rental licences in parts of Athens – a significant win for the protestors.

Between April and October of this year, the daily tax on short-term rentals will also rise to eight euros – up from 1.50 euro in years gone by.

Wider reforms may be needed, with Greece’s visitor count set to double by 2030. 

But Greece is some way from looking at the comprehensive housing reforms Spain is considering.

The issues facing the country, still recovering from a nearly decade-long debt crisis, go well beyond those affecting Spain, with entrenched low wages making it ever-harder even for skilled professionals to be able to afford homes.

Greece is also battling soaring construction costs, which limit the state’s ability to provide the sweeping changes Spain has proposed.

The number of Brits living in Greece is also a drop in the ocean next to Spain’s tally. 

In 2019, there were some 302,000 British citizens registered as living in Spain. Greece had just over 17,000.

The scale of the issue is more pronounced for France, where 176,672 were estimated to be living in 2019.

The dream of retiring to the south of France is either more desirable or attainable for many Brits, despite rules changing in 2021.

France is battling its own housing crisis, outlined in some depth when felt by Le Monde in September 2023. 

‘Rising interest rates are restricting the availability of mortgages and reducing the number of potential buyers,’ the newspaper assessed.

‘Weak demand is beginning to weigh on prices and the fluidity of transactions. 

‘The new-build market is in freefall, with a consequent impact on the construction industry.’

Analysis shared last year assessed that house prices in mainland France had increased by an average of 27.8 per cent over the last five years.

With more than 100 million visitors each year, as of 2023, France also has to contest with the challenge of short-term rentals and holiday homes.

This tends to be concentrated on Paris and some of the major port cities; government figures show than 80 per cent of the country’s annual tourism is concentrated on just 20 per cent of the country.

While Spain gets 442 annual tourists per square mile, France follows closely with 404, the Telegraph notes. 

In a bid to tackle the trend, tourism minister Olivia Gregoire unveiled plans to regulate visitor flows at some of France’s most popular sites in 2023.

This was to include a tourism observatory to measure flows and identify overloads.

‘France is the world’s biggest tourist destination, but we have a serious lack of data to help manage the crowds,’ the government has said in the past.

She said France needed to better manage the peak-season influxes that threatened ‘the environment, the quality of life for locals, and the experiences for its visitors’.

As pandemic restrictions were relaxed and lifted, many of the most famous French sites, such as the Mont-Saint-Michel abbey in Normandy, said they were being overwhelmed by the sheer number of visitors.

Still, France is yet to see the same outcry from residents for reform to its tourism industry.

‘I think [the lack of anti-tourism protests] is because the French themselves holiday so much within their own country, so the tourism industry is set up to handle large numbers of visitors,’ Lyon-based travel writer Anna Richards told the Telegraph.

Despite facing less pressure to act, France did introduce new rules on short-term tourist rentals in 2023.

Tax allowances for furnished tourist accommodation fell from 71 per cent to 50 per cent, with a cap lowered to 77,000 euro.

The hope is the change will free up more rental properties for long-term tenants and make long-term agreements more desirable to homeowners – which could, inevitably, include Brits.

Similar measures might be welcomed in Portugal, which has seen its own share of demonstrations against unaffordable house prices and rising costs.

Demonstrators marched in major cities towards the end of last summer with banners emblazoned with slogans like ‘our neighbourhoods are not your business’ – distinctly reminiscent of similar signs held up at the Spanish rallies.

Portugal – much like Spain, Greece and France – is contending with the allure of letting out homes for short-stay tourists for property owners.

In line with trends around the Mediterranean – Italy, Greece, Spain – residents face low wages and difficulty getting onto the housing ladder, exacerbated (and rubbed in somewhat) by holidaymakers snapping up rentals in busy cities.

‘The housing problem is a problem that has been going on for many years in our country and is now reaching a situation that is beyond unbearable,’ one protestor in Porto said at the time, as reported by Euro News. 

In September, a ‘housing rights movement’ group, Porta a Porta, called for protests in as many as 22 cities.

‘Look for your city on this list and join the fight for the right to housing that will take place there,’ read the call to action.

Between 2015 and 2021, rents in the country jumped 112 per cent, according to Eurostat.

This is unaffordable for the many, with 67 per cent of workers earning less than 1,000 euro a month in 2021 (£843.90).

Just 27.8 per cent of workers were in the category up, earning between 1,000 and 2499.9 euros. 

British expats make up a similar demographic to that of Greece, however, estimated at a little over 18,500 people in 2019.

Spain’s story is not unique. Protests or anticipatory measures to deter certain kinds of foreign visitors have also shifted discourse in Italy, the Netherlands, and even Britain.

The measures suggested by the Spanish government will take time to come into effect if they can pass in parliament.

But the message is clear: European governments are now being forced to respond to the perception of overtourism amid a much wider problem of residents being priced out of housing by high demand and waning supply.

Spain’s constitution maintains that all Spaniards have the right to enjoy a ‘decent and adequate home’. In theory, at least, the government has a duty to allow citizens to exercise that right.