The golden visa is gone. The routes to Spain that aren't.

Let’s clear this one up, because there is a lot of out-of-date advice online. Spain abolished its golden visa in April 2025. The scheme that granted residency in exchange for a €500,000 property investment no longer exists.

If a website or an agent is still selling “buy a home, get residency,” they are working from old information. Buying a property on the Costa del Sol does not, on its own, give you the right to live in Spain full-time.

What that means for a British buyer

For most of my clients this changes less than they fear. Owning a holiday or second home was never dependent on the golden visa — you can still buy freely, and spend time here under the visa-free rules (see the 90/180-day rule). What’s gone is only the fast track to residency by property purchase.

If your plan is to live in Spain, rather than visit, you now go through a proper visa route — and several remain very much open.

The routes that still work

• The Non-Lucrative Visa (NLV). For people who can support themselves without working in Spain — retirees and the financially independent. You show sufficient income or savings and private health cover. It’s long-established and popular with British buyers who are moving over properly.
• The Digital Nomad Visa. For remote workers and the self-employed working for companies outside Spain. It came in relatively recently and suits a wave of younger buyers who can work from anywhere.
• Standard work and family routes. As for any non-EU country, employment, self-employment and family-reunification routes exist with their own conditions.

Owning here and living here are two different questions. Buy the home freely; choose the visa route separately, with proper advice.

The honest caveat

Visa rules change, thresholds move, and the detail matters enormously — this is where you want a specialist immigration lawyer, not a property agent playing one. What I can do is make sure you understand the landscape before you commit to a purchase, and introduce you to the right independent professionals when you need them.

If your dream is a life on the coast rather than a fortnight of it, let’s talk it through — I’ll be straight with you about how the pieces fit.

This is general, dated guidance (2026); immigration rules change. Always take advice from a qualified Spanish immigration lawyer for your own situation.