ERC’s latest motion in the Catalan parliament demands new legal powers to ban most foreign buyers, claiming they’re to blame for rising housing costs. The only thing being speculated here, however, is political capital.

ERC pushes new restrictions on foreign buyers

ERC is at it again. The Catalan Republican Left party has pushed through yet another parliamentary motion demanding limits on foreign property buyers, blaming them for housing “speculation” and rising rental prices. Their proposal passed with the support of the PSC, Comuns and CUP—though notably it remains a symbolic gesture with no legal force for now.

The motion calls on both the Spanish Government and the Catalan executive led by Salvador Illa to create the legal framework needed to restrict property purchases by non-resident foreigners, anyone with fewer than five years of residence in Spain, and even Spanish companies with foreign shareholders. That’s a wide net designed to catch almost anyone ERC deems “foreign” enough to scapegoat.

A familiar populist refrain

ERC’s argument is that foreigners are buying homes not to live in them, but purely to speculate, which supposedly drives up prices for everyone else. “The market is ferocious and without scruples. We have to regulate it,” said ERC deputy Mar Besses during the debate.

But as usual with ERC, the claims are bigger than the facts. Foreign buyers make up a small share of the overall housing market in Catalonia. Many are not speculators but families relocating to live and work, retirees, or second-home buyers with longstanding ties to the region. Suggesting they’re all faceless profiteers is politically convenient but fundamentally dishonest.

This isn’t about fixing the market

If ERC were serious about tackling housing affordability, they’d focus on the structural problems they’ve helped create: rent controls that discourage supply, weak enforcement against illegal squatting, and suffocating bureaucracy that hinders development. These are the real reasons the housing market is broken—not a British couple buying a holiday-home on the Costa Brava.

In fact, far from helping, ERC’s approach could make things worse. Their motion also supports banning tourist rental licences for foreigners and introducing punitive measures for people who own multiple homes. Were any of this to become law, it would likely decimate the tourist rental and second-home markets that sustain local economies on the Costa Brava and Costa Dorada—without doing a thing to improve housing access for locals.

No legal basis

The motion, while passed, is little more than political theatre. As things stand, foreigners will continue to be able to buy property just as before. Any actual restrictions would require legislative changes at both the national and regional level, and even then, they would almost certainly fall foul of EU law—particularly when it comes to discriminating against citizens of other EU member states.

Even some of ERC’s rivals on the left seem to recognise the problem. Junts and the PP were highly critical of the motion, with PP deputy Àngels Esteller warning that rather than ensuring access to housing, the plan would destroy it. “¡Exprópiese!” she exclaimed, borrowing a line from the late Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez.

All gesture, no policy

At the end of the day, this latest move from ERC is just more of the same: posturing in the guise of policy. It’s easier to blame foreigners for Catalonia’s housing problems than to take responsibility for years of bad decisions. But while ERC points the finger abroad, the crisis at home continues to grow.