Can the Canary Islands limit the sale of homes to foreigners as an outermost region?

The Minister of Public Works and Housing of the Canary Islands Government, Pablo Rodríguez, has announced that they are working to elucidate how to use the condition of Outermost Region (OR) of the Canary Islands to try to limit the purchase of housing by non-resident foreigners.

During this Tuesday's plenary session of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, and in response to a question from the deputy of the Canarian Coalition José Manuel Bermúdez, the Minister of the area recalled that the search for legal solutions is not easy, since the treaties of foundation and operation of the European Union establish the free movement of capital between member states.

However, the exception to European regulations, in Rodríguez's opinion, may come through the adaptation to the regulations on the ORs, which could open the door to limiting these capital movements for imperative reasons of general interest.

In his speech, Pablo Rodríguez acknowledged that the scarcity of supply and the increase in demand in the market is partly strained by the purchase of non-resident foreigners.

"We are committed to exploring all the possibilities established by the European Union. Policies have to adapt to the conditions of the ORs and in that question we can try to seek exceptionality and establish a limitation on the purchase of homes. We are going to explore that route through the office in Brussels," Rodríguez summarized.

In his speech, Bermúdez recalled that in the case of Tenerife, one in three homes are sold to non-resident foreigners and, in the case of the tourist areas of a good part of the islands, this number rises to one in two.