Spaniards own €9.2bn in foreign property, says tax office

Assets outside of Spanish territory declared via Form 720 – compulsory for any tax resident in Spain who has €50,000 or more in cash, savings or bricks and mortar abroad – show citizens, rather than expatriates, own property in nearly 150 countries.

France, where the highest number of premises owned by Spaniards is found, tops the list at €1.73bn, and next comes the UK, with nearly €1.38bn in property, Germany at just under €728m, and Portugal and México level-pegging on €682.3m.

Other countries where Spaniards have declared ownership of property exceeding €300m in total are Andorra (€627.4m), Belgium (€458m), the USA (€374m), Switzerland (€354.6m), Venezuela (€326m) and Italy (€309m).

Overall, Spanish nationals who are still residents and taxpayers in their home country own property abroad on every continent except the Antarctic, according to the treasury, or Hacienda.

New Zealand, where nationals own €2.5 million in property, is followed by Iran, with €2.2m, Kazakhstan at €1.9m and Bermuda at €1.2m.

Of those properties valued at a total of less than a million, the highest amount is invested in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean, at €884,130, followed by Mozambique at €138,000.