On Wednesday, the Balearic Minister of Economic Model, Tourism and Labor, Iago Negueruela, supported “deep debate” to be carried out on how to limit the “purchase of housing in the Balearic Islands” by non-residents or people who have been living in the archipelago for less than five years.
The Balearic Parliament last week approved an initiative from the regionalists of El Pi in which the regional executive was urged to curb the human pressure and saturation experienced by the islands, and which also alluded to this limitation on the purchase of houses.
In the plenary session on Wednesday, the PP deputy Sebastià Sagreras has reproached the councilor saying “we shouldn’t play with our food” and has maintained that citizens deserve a “serious and constructive” debate on the problem of the lack of housing and its increase in price, including rent.
Housing prices
“Since the president (Francina) Armengol has governed and with the populist measures of Podemos, prices only go up,” lamented Sagreras.
The popular deputy has pointed out that homes that 1 million euros or 1.5 million “do not compete” with those valued at 200,000 or 250,000 euros, which are bought or rented by national residents.
In addition, the luxury housing market for foreigners moves around a “very important” business for small and medium enterprises in the Balearic Islands, he added.
In his response, the councilor responded that the PP is “absolutely misguided” with its “Margaret Thatcher” neoliberal economic policies.
Finland, Denmark or Malta, countries of the European Union, “protect” their citizens in the purchase of housing and, therefore, this is “something necessary”, said Negueruela.
The minister has rejected the proposals of the PP and the former regional president Gabriel Cañellas, who “wanted the Balearic Islands to be Europe’s second residence”.
“The Balearic Islands cannot be a theme park where there is no room for the people of our islands”, Â as the PP intends, he added.
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