In this week’s edition we look at how recent articles in the British press claiming Spain is directly targeting UK retirees and dashing their hopes of owning a Spanish holiday home have failed to focus on the elephant in the room.
After years of covering Spanish news, I’ve lost count of all the exaggerated or erroneous claims about Spain in the UK tabloids.
There was the story about fines for urinating in the sea in Spain, the supposed ban on tourists drinking alcohol in the Balearics, the one about the so-called ‘£97 daily rule’ Spain was apparently imposing on UK tourists, the claim that Spain was lobbying to let Brits stay longer than 90 days after Brexit, Ryanair’s alleged ban on duty-free alcohol on Spain-bound flights, the one about Lanzarote supposedly snubbing British holidaymakers, and the list goes on.
But sometimes it’s the more traditional broadsheets that get it wrong, or at least partly.
Over the last couple of weeks, two leading British newspapers have published articles implying that Spanish authorities are looking to stop UK nationals from buying homes in Spain.
The Telegraph ran with “How Spain dismantled the British expat dream” while The I Paper went with “’The gravy train is over’: Spain is turning on British expats”.
Both articles do a pretty good job covering recent and not so recent proposals to limit property purchases by non-residents in Spain at a regional and national level, as well as mentioning other anti-mass tourism measures touted or introduced.
The two pieces are also right to illustrate that a part of Spanish society, as well the ruling Socialists, partly blame affluent foreigners for the housing crisis locals are facing.
READ ALSO: Barcelona mayor ‘would ban’ non-EU second home owners
But what is wrong is to claim that “Spain dismantled the British expat dream” or that the country has “turned on British expats”.
No, Brexit dismantled the British expat dream and Brexit turned on Brits abroad – residents and swallows included.
Prior to Brexit, Brits could decide when and how long they wanted to spend in Spain without having to worry about visas, the 90-day rule, overstaying or stricter residency rules for non-EU nationals.
Rich, poor, young and old could effortlessly give Spain a go. They could have their cake and eat it, as residents or non-residents.
Brexit changed that completely, and the emergence of potential limits on foreign buyers in Spain has just further exposed the drawbacks of becoming non-EU citizens.
Because any property ban aimed at foreigners at a regional or national level – none of which have come into force with the exception of the golden visa being axed – is far more likely to apply to third-country nationals, as the EU protects its own.
READ ALSO: Are non-EU property buyers really to blame for Spain’s housing crisis?
Needless to say, the ‘British expat dream’ – whatever that is really – is far from over.
If the implication of this dream is having a Spanish holiday home, then Brits can rest assured that they can still buy property in Spain and Pedro Sánchez’s proposed 100 percent tax on non-residents from outside of the EU has gone cold for nearly a year.
Brits are still the biggest foreign property buyers in Spain, even if they’re not snapping up homes at the same rate as they used to.
It’s worth noting that The Telegraph, a big proponent of the UK leaving the EU, did admit in its article that “Brexit slammed on the brakes” for British buyers in Spain and that “leaving the EU limited the amount of time British people could spend on the Continent and added to the costs and bureaucracy of owning property there”. Unfortunately, that doesn’t tally with their headline.
Surprisingly, The I Paper – considered more centrist or slightly left-of-centre – made no mention at all of Brexit in its article.
There’s also the fact that both headlines mention British expats, as if they were the only ones being supposedly targeted rather than other foreign property buyers and tourists.
Despite the unfavourable reputation some boozy British tourists have built in Spain and elsewhere over the years, los británicos are far from being scapegoated for all of Spain’s ills.
Brits aren’t the fall guy, contrary to what those headlines suggest.
But perhaps British exceptionalism has been redefined, being the only nation to have shot itself in the foot in such a way.
