Key takeaways
- Spain’s residency-by-property Golden Visa was abolished by Ley Orgánica 1/2025 (Organic Law 1/2025). The last day to apply was 3 April 2025; you can no longer buy a property to obtain residency.
- If you already hold a Golden Visa, you are generally fine. Existing permits remain valid and can be renewed under the old rules.
- If you wanted residency without working, the non-lucrative visa is now the main route. It needs around 28,800 euros a year in passive income for one person, no employment allowed.
- If you work remotely, the digital nomad visa fits better, with a higher income bar (about 34,188 euros a year) but the right to keep earning.
- Genuine business investment or company-building has its own tracks, the investor and entrepreneur visas, which the Golden Visa never replaced.
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For a decade, the answer to “how do I get Spanish residency with money rather than a job” was simple: buy a property worth 500,000 euros and apply for a Golden Visa. That door is now closed. The good news is that the routes most people actually needed are still open, and several of them were always the more sensible choice anyway.
Last verified: 2026-06-27. Operational orientation, not legal advice; confirm specifics with your gestor or lawyer.
Applies to: Non-EU nationals who hoped to gain residency through property investment, or who are weighing residency-by-investment alternatives.
Timing: Golden Visa applications ended 3 April 2025. Alternative routes take roughly 1 to 4 months to approve, depending on the visa and consulate.
Cost or penalty: No penalty for existing holders. New applicants face income thresholds rather than a purchase price: from roughly 28,800 euros/year (non-lucrative) upward.
Best next move: Decide whether you have passive income, remote work, or a business to bring, then match yourself to the route below.
The quick answer
Spain ended the Golden Visa on 3 April 2025 through Ley Orgánica 1/2025 (Organic Law 1/2025), which was published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado (Official State Gazette) on 3 January 2025 and took effect three months later. Buying property no longer grants residency. If you already hold a Golden Visa, you keep it and renew as before. For everyone else, the practical alternatives are the non-lucrative visa for those living on passive income, the digital nomad visa for remote workers, and the investor or entrepreneur visas for real business activity.
What ended, and what did not
The Golden Visa was introduced in 2014 during the recession to attract foreign capital. By 2024 the government concluded it was fuelling housing speculation in stretched cities, with the overwhelming majority of visas tied to real estate. So it was scrapped. The 500,000-euro property route, along with the various capital-investment and bank-deposit variants, no longer leads to residency.
What did not change is the position of existing holders. If your Golden Visa application was submitted before the 3 April 2025 deadline, it was processed under the old rules, and current holders retain their benefits and renewal rights. Nobody is being asked to leave because the scheme closed.
The non-lucrative visa: living on passive income
This is the natural successor for most people who eyed the Golden Visa as a retirement or semi-retirement move. The visado de residencia no lucrativa (non-lucrative residence visa) lets you live in Spain without working, provided you can support yourself.
For 2026 the threshold is 400% of the IPREM (Public Income Indicator), which works out to roughly 2,400 euros per month, or about 28,800 euros per year, for the main applicant. Add around 600 euros per month for each dependent. Because Spain has not passed a new national budget, the IPREM has stayed flat, so the bar is the same as 2025.
The catch worth underlining: the income must be genuinely passive. Pensions, rental income, dividends and investment returns count. Salary, freelance fees and remote work do not, and consulates have grown stricter about this. If your money comes from working, read the next section instead. Full detail in our non-lucrative visa guide.
The digital nomad visa: keep your remote job
Introduced under the 2023 Startups Law, the visado para teletrabajadores (digital nomad visa) is built for people earning an income from work done remotely for companies or clients outside Spain. Up to 20% of your income may come from Spanish sources.
The income bar is higher than the non-lucrative visa because it is pegged to the Salario Mínimo Interprofesional (national minimum wage). With the 2026 minimum wage rise, the requirement is roughly 200% of that figure, around 2,849 euros per month or about 34,188 euros per year for the main applicant, with additions for a partner and children. In exchange you get the one thing the non-lucrative visa forbids: the right to keep earning. There can also be favourable tax treatment under the so-called Beckham regime, which is worth asking a tax adviser about. See our digital nomad visa guide for the document list.
Investor and entrepreneur routes: for real business
Worth being clear: the Golden Visa was a residency-by-passive-investment scheme, and nothing has replaced that exact mechanism. What remains are routes tied to genuine economic activity rather than parking money in bricks.
The investor route covers significant, active investment that creates economic value or jobs, assessed on its merits rather than a flat property price. The entrepreneur route is for founders launching a business judged to be innovative and of general interest, typically requiring a viable business plan and a favourable report from the relevant Spanish authority. These are more involved than buying a flat, which is rather the point. We cover the criteria, paperwork and realistic timelines in the investor visa guide and the entrepreneur visa guide.
Which one fits you
The honest framing is to ask where your income comes from. Living off pensions or investments points to the non-lucrative visa. Working remotely for foreign clients points to the digital nomad visa. Building or backing a real Spanish business points to the entrepreneur or investor routes. The property-purchase shortcut is simply gone, and for most readers it was never the cheapest or simplest option to begin with.
We track changes to Spanish residency rules as they happen, because the thresholds and small print shift more often than anyone would like. Subscribe to the WaypointSur newsletter for plain-English updates when the figures move.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still get Spanish residency by buying a property?
No. The Golden Visa ended on 3 April 2025 under Organic Law 1/2025. Buying property, at any price, no longer grants a residency permit. You would now use the non-lucrative, digital nomad, investor or entrepreneur route instead.
I already have a Golden Visa. Do I lose it?
Generally no. Permits granted before the deadline remain valid and can be renewed under the previous rules. Confirm your particular situation, especially regarding family members, with an immigration lawyer.
Which alternative is cheapest to qualify for?
The non-lucrative visa has the lowest income threshold, around 28,800 euros a year for one applicant, but it bars you from working. The digital nomad visa asks for more, about 34,188 euros a year, but lets you keep earning remotely.
