Limitation to foreigners

The rise in prices in the Islands in 2021 was 9.6%, in the Balearic Islands at the national level the purchase of homes by foreigners was 38.95%, but how does this affect the Spanish citizen?  

One of the factors that most affects the Spanish citizen when buying a home is the income they obtain compared to foreigners, this is where one of the difficulties lies. For this reason, the Balearic Parliament acts against this event in which the Balearic Executive has promised to study during the 3 months the limitation of housing by foreigners. In the Balearic Islands, one in three sales is made by foreign citizens, mainly from the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Twenty years ago, they focused exclusively on luxury housing, but now they are buying mid-level homes, which are becoming unaffordable for residents because prices have skyrocketed. “That’s when we started to have the problem”, the president of the Association of Real Estate Agents of the Islands and the API Balearic Association, Natalia Bueno, who does not propose limiting the purchase. of houses to like “crazy” on the islands.  

“It is not about restricting housing to foreigners, but about preventing second residents from eating up the first residence” commented the spokesman for MÉS per Menorca in the Autonomous Chamber and promoter of the initiative, however there are many criticisms, as well Josep Castells indicates that “there is no element of xenophobia” in his proposal. “The problem is that there are too many second homes that perpetuate the problems of access to a first home in the Balearic Islands”, he clarifies.

The situation is that if a person from abroad, who generally has a higher purchasing power than a Spanish citizen, buys a home, this causes the price level to rise, creating greater difficulties for people residing in the area, which it ends up having an impact on the market price and the possibility of a person from the territory being able to acquire a home being unfeasible.

the payment for a house for a young person for an employee between the ages of 16 and 29 is unfeasible, since it is required to use 93.8% of the monthly salary to pay the mortgage fee and 111.2 for rental income These data obtained from “Yearbook of Youth in the Balearic Islands 2021” in the second semester of 2020 made by the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB). Many aspects are important when looking for measures that “limit” the purchase of homes to foreigners, as is the case in the Balearic Islands where rents do not have a ceiling on prices. The Balearic Government will analyze the situation through a working group and seek a solution for the study that prevents the limitation of housing by foreigners.