The Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez (above) announced plans to terminate the country’s ‘golden visa’ scheme to ensure citizens’ housing rights were respected.

The scheme offers residency rights to foreigners who invest more than €500,000 in Spanish real estate and was first launched in 2013.

A similar scheme was launched by Malta in the same year.

The plans for Spain’s termination of the programme were announced this week, with Sanchez saying that the procedure to eliminate the granting of the “so-called golden visa” will start, and the country will prioritize housing instead.

“The program has made it impossible to find decent housing for those who live and work in cities and pay their taxes every day,” Prime Minister Sanchez said.

He continued that such schemes foster inequality and societal discord, and is not the model the country needs.

Sanchez said that the program also hinders access to affordable housing for ordinary citizens.

The Spanish cabinet is set to begin actions to eliminate the program in a meeting this week.

The Spanish authorities have claimed that the decision is in line with the call the European Commission made two years ago to terminate golden visa schemes due to security concerns.

Malta is also known for having among the most sought-after citizenship programme in the world, with the Maltese government, when defending Malta’s citizenship by investment programmes, arguing that citizenship is a national competence of individual member states.

Malta has also long been criticized for its sale of citizenship scheme, with the European Commission even resorting to taking legal action against the country’s investor “golden passport” scheme in 2022.

Under the scheme, Malta offers EU citizenship to foreigners in exchange for an investment in the country of about €1 million.