Globevisa Interview with our Exclusive Prestigious Lawyer in Spain

Recent news release about Portugal Golden Visa closure has brough Spain into the spotlight. Even though the minimum investment is almost as double as Portugal: 500K EUR, top education and better economy still attacts even more applicants than before.

Director of Globevisa Spain Golden Visa program Freya interviewed with our exclusive lawyer Mr. Gabriel, to give more insight about our team and the trend of immigration policy.

Globevisa Freya：Hi Mr.Gabriel, thank you for your time. And could you please introduce yourself and your law firm first? Mr. Gabriel : It’s really a pleasure to be here. I would like to introduce myself briefly: my name is Gabriel Fuentes. I have been working in the real estate market for more than 35 years. I’m also a real estate lawyer and a member of IPI ( Association of Real Estate Agency). Our law firm has been cooperating with GLOBEVISA for about 10 years, We take in charge of the background check and the transfer of the properties for GLOBEVISA clients, whose purpose of purchasing property is to apply for the Golden visa. And we also provide after-sale services for our clients, such as rental service, tax declaration and any other additional services that might meet the client’s needs. Globevisa Freya：Why did you choose to cooperate with Globevisa exclusively? Mr. Gabriel : We all know that GLOBEVISA is a big-name company and it has branches in many parts of the world. We entrust and appreciate GLOBEVISA on its influence, brand awareness, big team size, and its dominant market share. Cooperation with Globevisa saved us a lot in marketing and spared our time into focusing on service instead of sales. The recent outstanding increase in application volume has built more confidence in the future. We have been working with you for so many years, and it has been a long, enjoyable and fruitful collaboration for both parties. Globevisa Freya : How do you cooperate with Globevisa Barcelona office specifically? Mr. Gabriel : It is great pleasure to expose our collaboration and delegation. Globevisa Barcelona team has provided very impressive hosting service leading to clients' high satisfaction. And I will introduce two team members here: Mr. Fan has been living and workingin Barcelona for more than 20 years, speaking both Mandarin and Spanish. He will host clients in viewing properties, and complete the basic formalities. Ms. Sisi is a very enthusiatic girl and a problem solver. I’m in charge of supervising and controlling all of the legal issues, and making sure all the work are compliant with Spanish laws and regulations. Without this kind of team, we would not be able to achieve such a success. Globevisa Freya : What are the major souce of nationalities applying Spanish Golden visa in its ten-year history? Mr. Gabriel : The first thing I want to say, is that the Spanish real estate has always been attractive for investors from all over the world. Mostly, the foreigners who bought real estate in Spain were Russians, British, Germans, etc. In order to have an idea of sales volume and real estate purchases, we could use the 2022 data from the ministry. Almost 89,000 transactions completed, of which the major buyers are British, then German, French and also Chinese. Chinese is becoming to be a powerful group, who discovered the business and investment opportunities in Spain. Globevisa Freya : Can you share with us the rejection rate of Spanish Golden Visa and under what circumstances will the Golden Visa be refused? Mr. Gabriel : Well, let's see, what I wanted to say is that normally we hardly have any refusals from Goldenvisa, if the procedures are well done. Most of the problems that usually exist in practice are documentation problems, like the documents are not correct, expired, and not completed. But if everything is right from the beginning, the is no chance to be refused. It is a fixed and very standard procedure, of which if all the requirements are met, it will be issued. In the past ten years of cooperating with GLOBEVISA, we’ve not had any refusal of Goldenvisa. In order not to get a negative result, we always prepare the document right. It is true that many people ignore the processes and then this costs them in both time and economic manner. It is necessary to know as if the property is with debts or without debts legally, the amount of the net investment amount. Why? Because even if you pay 500,000 or more than 500,000 to buy a property, if there is a mortgage, you have to go through a process to cancel it. Because if the process don’t be completed, from the legal perspective, the mortgage does not count as part of the investment. So a person might thought that his investment has been completed, because he paid the amount of 500,000, but legally, and according to the documentation, it was not completed. By consulting with a big company and especially with us, you will not face this situation. Because before starting the process, we provide full informative guidance. We have the capacity to investigate the property, and find out the legal situations and the physical situations. That is to say, if we visit a property in advance, we see if the property is in good condition, or if it’s going to have problems in the short term, and if there is any other problem that apparently cannot be seen, then we will also check it. If things are done right in principle, all of this can be avoided in practice. There is a popular saying in Spain, a proverb 'Bad ends come from the bad beginnings', then, to end well, to be successful, you have to start well. If a person working a little and badly in the beginning, it is normal that he will not be successful in the business. Globevisa Freya : As we all know, the investment immigration policies of European countries are in a period of change recently. Many clients are also worried that Spain's investment immigration policy will be adjusted. Could you please share us some information about these ideas? Mr. Gabriel : Well, the truth is that there is information specifically about the Más País party, which is a marginal party, which does not present more than 3% of the total votes of the entire country made a proposal to eliminate the issue of the Goldenvisa or to increase the amount of investment. In this case, this proposal has been rejected by the government and the other parties, so it doesn’t seem like something that is going to happen soon. This is only the opinion of 3% and of a small group of people who’s trying to do it, but it is not a shared opinion. And this issue has to be made clear and people have to perceive it for what it is, not as what they say but as the reality of what is happening. It is true that there are other countries, specifically Ireland, and Portugal, which have limited certain areas, that is to say, that the investor could not buy a property anywhere he wants, but only in some areas that are not so good, and Greece has adjusted and has been modifying and changing the investment policy. Therefore, it seems that it is a trend, that is repeated in Europe, that they may not keep allowing three or four countries (sailing Goldenvisa), and this may be readjusted in the short term, and it could be one of the few opportunities to buy or have the Goldenvisa in these conditions. I understand that at this is the time we take advantage of this opportunity, because even if that is not suppressed, it would be better to discuss the conditions and the amount of the investment. Lastly, I would like to tell clients that all clients end up being friends, that if you are thinking of applying for a Goldenvisa, you do not have to worry at this moment. The visa processing and applying period might be four to five months, and in Spain there will be no congressional elections until the end of the year, so we have more than enough time to finish the process for applying Goldenvisa. What follows I would tell you is that if you have the intention, you could start planning it, and preparing the documentation as soon as possible. Globevisa provides the fulfillment of the procedures and the best procedures to meet the requirements. As I mentioned before, I do not think it is something soon, but that we can be there on time when conditions change. That is why I encourage everyone, who does have this decision, to start it as soon as possible. And thanks to Globevisa, for the invitation and that we have been able to make these comments in favor of the clients and the company. We really appreciate Mr. Gabriel's time to give us a deeply insight about their team and service, especially the status quo and estimation of regulation change. Globevisa and our exlusive Spanish lawyers always endevored with our expertise to give the best service.