MALLORCA – “The Balearic Islands cannot be a theme park where the people of our islands no longer fit”, said the regional Minister of Economic Model, Tourism and Work, Iago Negueruela. He motivated his intention to limit the house purchase of those non resident.
Negueruela says it is open to restricting the purchase of houses in the archipelago. This includes the islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. Moreover, he would do this by banning non-residents and people who have lived in the area for under five years.
These statements come a week after the Balearic Parliament approved an initiative by the El Pi group. In this, several measures have been taken by the regional government to reduce the overpopulation and population saturation of the Balearic Islands. Among these measures also the proposal to limit the purchase of houses by non-residents.
Before these proposals can become reality, the government will first open a debate process on the premises accepted by the majority of the House. Even though the government and the opposition agree to limit the purchase of real estate to non-residents, European Union (EU) Community policy prevents discrimination in the purchase of housing based on factors such as residence or nationality. In this regard, Denmark is for the time being the only country in the EU that has a differentiated legal framework.
Citizens deserve a serious debate about housing issues
In last Wednesday’s plenary session, PP deputy Sebastià Sagreras reproached the tourism minister for “not playing fair”. He also thought that citizens deserve a “serious” debate about the problem of lack of housing. In his argument, he affirmed that houses costing a €1 million or €1.5 million euros “don’t compete” with houses worth €200,000 or €250,000, which the islanders buy or rent. Sagreras added that the luxury housing market for foreigners is a very important activity for small and medium-sized companies in the Balearic Islands.
In turn, Pablo Jiménez, the deputy of Unidas Podemos in the archipelago, defended in parliament that housing policy should aim at increasing the public housing stock, without excluding the expropriation of large landowners and homeowners who “specify with houses while they have a large number of vacant houses and apartments.
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