Monday, May 12, 2008
Could the Canary Islands Impose Limits on Purchases of Second Homes?
On Friday, the Canarian Government was busy denying that they had planted the idea in Europe over limiting or regulating the acquisition of second homes in the Canary Islands, but continues the report, they do not discount doing so in the future.
Although, territoriosred point to an article in La Provincia which says that the European Union won't permit limitations on the purchase of second homes, except in very specific cases, they go on to give examples of how, a Canarian (and presumably any other foreigner) wanting to buy a property in Denmark, for instance, would have to be resident in that country to be able to do so. There's potentially nothing rotten about this; the same condition is expected of a Dane.
In Malta, the government demands a period of legal establishment of at least 5 years, before purchasers can buy a summer home on the Mediterranean island.
The EU is reported not to like words like limitation and restriction (especially when they would go against the free movement and free establishment principles that the EU is all about), but based on those examples, it may still be unlikely, but it's not impossible to imagine that some sort of special rule might, at some point, be allowed in the Canary Islands, based on the size and limitations of the territory. Some of the Greek islands, I believe, allow EU citizens to purchase property, but disallow those from outside the union from setting up there.
And, don't forget that there may be precedents in the facts that the Canary Islands already have special status for taxes; enjoy special concessions because of their "ultra periphery" (being a long way from everything) and are also treated as being outside of the EU for Duty Free and Customs purposes.
Anyway, I didn't catch the run up to this, nor what might have been said to make them have to react with a denial, but it's one to watch as, clearly, if a change were to take place, it could seriously affect foreign property owners.
