Staying longer than 90 days: Spanish visas for UK property owners
Who this is for: For UK citizens who own or plan to own a home in Spain and want to spend more than 90 days a year there. Irish buyers are EU citizens and do not need any of this.
If you own a home in Spain on a British passport, you can spend 90 days there in any rolling 180-day period. For a holiday home that is plenty. For wintering in the sun, it is not: October to April is about 210 days.
Owning the property does not help. The investor "golden visa" that once linked buying to residency was abolished on 3 April 2025. Buying and living are now two separate decisions, and this article is about the second one.
Irish buyers can skip it: as EU citizens you may live in Spain freely, registering with the Central Register of Foreigners once there.
The two routes most buyers use
The non-lucrative visa — for people who do not need to work: retirees, and anyone living on pensions, rent, dividends or investments.
The digital nomad visa — for people who work remotely for employers or clients outside Spain.
The difference is not lifestyle but income. One requires you not to work; the other requires you to work, just not for Spanish companies.
The non-lucrative visa
You must show enough passive income to live without working. The threshold is tied to Spain's IPREM index, which for 2026 stands at €600 a month, €7,200 a year.
| Applicant | Annual income required |
|---|---|
| Main applicant (400% of IPREM) | €28,800 (about €2,400 a month) |
| Each dependent (100% of IPREM) | + €7,200 (about €600 a month) |
A couple therefore needs about €36,000 a year between them.
What else it takes: private Spanish health insurance with full cover, a clean criminal record, and a commitment not to work in Spain — including remotely, for a foreign employer. That last point catches people out: on this visa, logging into a UK work laptop is not permitted.
The visa is granted for one year and renewed in two-year blocks. Renewal expects you to spend at least 183 days a year in Spain — which has tax consequences, see below.
The digital nomad visa
This one is calculated from the Spanish minimum wage, not IPREM. For 2026 the minimum wage is €1,221 a month, paid in 14 instalments — €17,094 a year — and the visa requires 200% of it.
| Applicant | Annual income required |
|---|---|
| Main applicant (200% of the minimum wage) | €34,188 (about €2,849 a month) |
| First dependent (75% of the minimum wage) | + about €12,800 |
| Each further dependent (25%) | + about €4,270 |
Additional conditions: you work for companies or clients outside Spain, no more than 20% of your income may come from Spanish sources, and you need private health cover and a clean record.
Applied for at a consulate in the UK, it is granted for one year, then renewed as a residence permit. Applied for from inside Spain, the initial permit runs three years. Either way the total can reach five years, after which long-term residence becomes possible.
The 183-day rule, and why it matters more than the visa
Spend more than 183 days in a calendar year in Spain and you generally become a Spanish tax resident. That means Spain taxes your worldwide income — UK state pension, private pensions, dividends, rental income, capital gains — not just what you earn in Spain.
This is not a reason to avoid moving. It is a reason to plan the move with a Spanish tax adviser before you apply, because:
- the non-lucrative visa effectively requires those 183 days at renewal, so tax residency is not optional on that route;
- the UK and Spain have a double taxation treaty, so the same income is not taxed twice — but which country taxes what depends on the type of income;
- the annual non-resident tax you pay as an owner (24% for UK residents) stops applying once you are resident, replaced by the resident system.
What about just buying, and visiting?
For many of our British buyers this is the answer. Ninety days in any 180 covers a long winter break and a summer month, with no visa, no income threshold and no change to your tax position beyond the annual non-resident tax.
Since 10 April 2026 those days are counted automatically at the border by the EU's biometric Entry/Exit System, so the limit is now enforced as written. More on that in our guide to buying property in Spain after Brexit.
In short
The golden visa is gone; buying no longer leads to residency. The non-lucrative visa needs €28,800 a year in passive income and forbids work of any kind. The digital nomad visa needs €34,188 a year and forbids more than 20% Spanish income. Both are applied for at the Spanish consulate that covers your UK address. Both lead to Spanish tax residency once you pass 183 days a year — take advice on that before, not after.