The government of the Balearic Islands, in Spain, wants to ban the purchase of houses by foreigners because of the rise in house prices.
According to data from the Spanish newspaper El País, some 60,000 foreigners have bought a home on the islands in the past ten years. In the year 2021 alone, home purchases accounted for nearly 40% of community activity, according to statistics from the Board of Clerks quoted by the newspaper.
The average price per square meter on the islands is 3082 euros, the second most expensive in the country after Madrid.
The rise in these prices led the Balearic government to set up a commission to analyze the possibility of prohibiting the purchase of real estate by citizens, foreigners or not, who have lived in the islands for less than five years.
The Podemos Party and the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party support this restriction and see Canada as a “model” to follow.
Canada earlier this year went ahead with a temporary measure banning foreigners from buying investment properties for two years.
The specialists quoted by El País do not find it very clear that the arrival of foreigners to the islands has a significant effect on the general price of housing.
Source: DN
