The left-wing populist party Podemos will advocate granting the governments of the Canary and the Balearic Islands an “island exception” that will allow them to limit the purchase of homes by foreigners, especially in areas where the property market is most under pressure.
In a statement released today by the party, the Podemos candidate for president of the Canary Islands and current councillor for Social Rights of the autonomous community, Noemí Santana, said that foreigners are currently buying one in every three homes in the region.
“According to data from the Association of Registrars, the islands are the autonomous community where most foreigners move which is causing housing prices to rise to the levels of the richest regions of Spain”, added Santana, who maintains that the Canary Islands are suffering “a housing emergency that prevents many families in the region from being able to rent or buy a home”.
Podemos says that it has studied rulings by the European Court of Justice in which it has found a legal basis for granting the Canary and Balearic governments the power to place limits on the property market and, in particular, on operations carried out by “non-residents”.
These European rulings, according Noemí Santana, offer “scope for measures such as these, which limit certain freedoms of the Union, to go ahead”, if they are taken “in the general interest, environmental protection, the fight against speculation, land planning or even to implement public housing policies”.