Proposed legislation to prevent foreigners from buying homes in the Canaries now looks unlikely to go through following defeat in a key Spanish parliamentary committee.
The controversial initiative was tabled by Fabián Chinea, a Canarian senator who represents La Gomera in Spain’s upper house, and was supported by several parties, including the ruling socialist party and the Canarian Coalition. It aimed to introduce strict limitations on the ability of non-residents to buy property not just in the Canaries but the Balearic Islands also.
According to the sponsors of the bill, much of the current pressure on housing in the two groups of islands, which are hugely popular with foreign tourists and attract tens of millions of visitors every year, is caused by people from outside Spain buying second homes and properties to rent out for short-term lets.
Mr Chinea argued that the unprecedented demand is pricing locals out of the housing market and causing negative impacts on society and the economies of the two regions, with many holiday industry workers unable to afford accommodation near their places of work. He supported the proposed law with statistics showing that up to 50% of properties sold in the islands are bought by non-residents. “As a remote region of the EU, the Canaries are a particularly fragile territory and special measures are needed to guarantee the right of locals to access affordable housing” argued the La Gomera politician.
If passed, the proposed measure would attract scrutiny from the European Union as it would have represented a controversial curtailment of the free movement of EU citizens. However, at least for now, it will not be carried forward as the Spanish Parliament’s joint committee on matters affecting Spain’s islands voted against the proposal, with MPs from the Popular Party and Vox arguing that it would not resolve the housing crisis in either archipelago and could actually constitute a form of xenophobia.
