The Parliament of the Balearic Islands is scheduled to debate in today’s plenary session an issue that may generate international controversy. It opens the discussion on the possibility of limiting the purchase of homes by foreigners considering it is one of the main factors of the increase in the price of real estate on the Balearic Islands.
A motion by Més per Menorca, which could receive the support of the rest of the parties of the Pact, asks the Govern to draw up a legal and technical report to evaluate the viability of limiting purchases by foreigners and to propose alternatives to modify the current norms which make it possible.
The proposed report should analyze experiences of limitation in Europe and extrapolate them to the Balearic Islands
According to European Union law, it is difficult to approve a limitation, as it states that citizens of European countries cannot be discriminated against on the basis of their origin. The example is the Sóller train, where a ruling by the European courts forced the elimination of the resident’s bonus.
However, the fact that this issue is on the table of the islands MP’s is significant. It is enough to recall the words of the dean of the Balearic Architects’ Association, Marta Vall-Llosera, who warned in an interview with this newspaper that “we will have to tackle the debate on limiting the sale of houses to foreigners”. In contrast, the president of the Balearic National and International Real Estate Association, Hans Lenz, said that “there is no place in EU legislation for limiting the purchase of homes to Europeans because it is discriminatory”.
Content of the initiative to limit foreigners purchasing property
The motion addresses various aspects of housing and, among other things, also calls for a boost in the construction of public housing, which, according to Castells, “is very slow”. They also criticized the Govern for the fact that only 16 apartments have been recovered from large developers to be used for subsidized housing. Point 10 proposes that the Parliament urge the Govern to set up a working group to draw up a report. Firstly, it calls for “an analysis of the rules that prevent foreigners from buying property on the Balearic Islands and to propose alternatives to modify them”. Similarly, it calls for technicians and experts to study the “cases and experiences that exist in Europe and internationally in limiting the purchase of property by foreigners and to draw conclusions applicable to the real estate problem on the Balearic Islands”. The initiative proposes that this report be drawn up within a maximum period of one year and that it be sent to Parliament to study the modifications to the legislation that could be made.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.