A political party on one of the Balearic Islands have launched a bid to restrict the sale of property in the archipelago to non-residents amid a growing housing crisis.
Més per Menorca has called on the regional government led by centre-right Partido Popular to declare a housing emergency either across the archipelago or in individual islands and limit the sale of homes only to people satisfying certain requirements.
According to the party proposal, prospective buyers who are foreigners would need to show residency certification, an employment contract, or a long-term social link.
Individuals representing companies would be banned from buying under this proposal, the Majorca Daily Bulletin reports.
The Balearic Islands in Spain are experiencing a housing crisis, amid a fall in the number of homes for sale in Majorca.
A report by the Economic and Social Council found that only one in three foreigners who bought a home in the Balearics in 2023 were residents of the region.
The overtourism experienced by the islands is one of the factors blamed by many for the rising housing costs, as measures to build new housing are becoming increasingly urgent.
Property website Idealista found a nine percent fall in the number of homes for sale in the Balearics.
House prices in Spain have therefore seen a major surge bringing the average price per square metre to £1,819.68 (€2,182).
Other factors likely contributing to the housing crisis in the Balearic Islands include a high demand for property from people wanting to live on the islands, including tourists and retirees and rising housing prices.
While the Més per Menorca is proposing restrictions on foreigners, Francisco Iñareta, spokesperson for Idealista, has urged political leaders in Spain to take swift action in order to expedite and encourage the construction of new housing developments.
“There has been a decade with a lack of foresight in the development of land for new housing,” explained Iñareta.
“The high cost of labour, bureaucratic labyrinths and the disappearance of construction companies are factors which have led us to the situation we are now in – supply falling by double digits and the price of housing at its highest, even above that reached at the peak of the real estate bubble.
“The main victims are the most vulnerable families who find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They do not have the capacity to save enough to apply for a mortgage.
“And the longer they wait, the more expensive housing becomes, making it even more difficult to access it.”
According to EuroNews, the most expensive provinces in Spain are the Balearic Islands, followed by Guipúzcoa and Madrid.
Yet despite being the most expensive, the Balearic Islands have the fewest households living in their own homes.
The proportion of households in home ownership in the Balearic Islands is 62.6 percent which is less than two thirds of the total and is the lowest percentage in Spain – well below the average of 75.1 percent.
Iñareta added that “a political consensus is increasingly urgent in order to launch the measures necessary to accelerate the construction of new housing and developments in the most stressed markets.”
