Spain is selling residency to foreigners

Associated Press – 22 hours ago

MADRID (AP) -- Looking for a new place to call home? Spain is hoping to give you a little bit more than a welcome basket of baked goods if you decide to move there. In an attempt to reduce the country's bloated stock of unsold homes, the government is set to offer permanent residency to any foreigner provided they buy a house or apartment worth more than €160,000 ($200,000).

The plan to unload the unsold homes comes as thousands of houses have been repossessed by banks and their owners evicted because they cannot pay their mortgages. The government last week approved a decree under which evictions would be suspended for two years in specific cases of extreme need.

Spain has more than 700,000 unsold houses following the collapse of its real estate market in 2008 and demand from the recession-hit domestic market is stagnant.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/spain-residency-foreigners-buy-houses-161200868.html

 

The results of unfettered socialism. Isn't it grand?

 

Heard about that on BBC World Service last night.

Good time to be rich, no?

 

barney frank strikes again. the righties who claim it was fanny mae that caused our housing crash have to explain why a bubble and crash happened in foreign countries too.

 

How much "house" is that in Spain compared to the Chicago suburbs at that ~price?

 

"Bread and Circuses" + funding a huge military DESTROYED the most vast and dominant civilization in the history of mankind... the Romans.

Ring a bell with anyone?