Podemos will advocate granting the Government of the Canary Islands an "insular exception" that allows them to limit the purchase of homes by foreign citizens in their territory, especially in those areas where the real estate market is most strained.
In statements released this Monday by her party, the Podemos candidate for president of the Canary Islands and current Minister of Social Rights of the autonomous community, Noemí Santana, recalls that "foreigners currently buy one in three homes that change hands in this region."
Podemos assures that it has studied rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union in which it has found a legal basis to grant the Governments of the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands the power to set limits on the real estate market and, in particular, on operations carried out by "non-residents."
These European rulings, adds Noemí Santanta, offer "room for measures such as these that limit some freedoms of the Union to go ahead," if they are taken "in the interest of the general public, environmental protection, the fight against speculation, land management, or even the implementation of public housing policies."
"According to data from the Association of Property Registrars, the islands are the autonomous community where more foreigners move to live, which is causing housing prices to rise to levels of the richest regions in Spain," adds Santana, who maintains that the Canary Islands are suffering "a situation of housing emergency that prevents many families in the archipelago from accessing the rental or purchase of a home."
