Foreigners face property buying ban over Balearic ‘ghost villages’

BRITONS face being banned from buying holiday houses in the Balearic Islands after the socialist vice-president said “ghost villages” are being created.

Foreigners buying second homes in Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza has led to a sharp rise in prices, driving locals out and leaving villages with empty homes for much of the year, authorities say.

Juan Pedro Yllanes, the vice-president and a member of Spain’s Left-wing populist party Podemos, has called for a ban on foreigners buying properties.

“We should follow Canada’s example,” he said yesterday, referring to a ban on foreign investors buying homes there, which was announced in April 2022 and will last for two years.

He urged the Spanish government to put pressure on the European Union, as a ban might not be compatible with EU laws on free movement within the bloc.

The Balearics authorities want Madrid to help curb house prices by labelling the islands a “stressed area” – where rent and mortgage costs exceed 30 per cent of the average local income.

Francina Armengol, the president of the Balearic Islands who represents a local socialist party, earlier said: “Many European and other citizens can afford property at prices that are impossible for the citizens of these islands.”

Prior to the announcement on Monday, the leader of the main opposition party in the Balearics, Marga Prohens, attacked the “intention” to prohibit the sale of properties to non-residents.

Ms Prohens said that this is “an attack on the private property of citizens that only seeks to cover up the failure of President Armengol’s housing policies”.

The Balearics would not be the first territory in the EU to impose limits on foreigners buying property. The Aland Islands, a Finnish archipelago in the Baltic sea, has restrictions. Buyers must live in Finland for five years before they can ask for a residency permit.

And in Croatia, EU citizens must be residents for 10 years before they can buy agricultural land. More than a third of homes sold in the Balearics in the third quarter of 2022 were bought by non-spaniards, data from Spain’s college of registrars showed.

The village of Deià in western Mallorca has been popular among British buyers since the late 1920s. Billionaire Richard Branson is also reported to own a luxury property in the area.

However, property prices have risen in recent years, with houses currently selling for more than €6,700 (£5,945) per sq ft in June last year, compared with just over €4,100 in January 2016.

It is now the second most expensive place to buy property in Spain.

‘Many European and other citizens can afford prices that are impossible for the citizens of these islands’