Brits, Germans and even mainland Spaniards face island home-buying ban without 10 years’ residence

Families who settled in the Canaries five years ago would be just as shut out as a German holidaymaker under a plan demanding a decade on the padrón (town hall register) before anyone can buy a home. It’s still only a draft though, and it’s landed in Madrid just weeks before the general election. 

Ten years on the padrón before anyone can buy

Anyone hoping to buy a home in the Canary Islands would first have to prove they’ve lived there for 10 uninterrupted years under a draft law the regional government has sent to Madrid. Those whose time on the islands has been broken up would need 15 years. 

The proof would be the certificado de empadronamiento (the certificate showing you’re registered at your local town hall), and the rule would apply to Spaniards and foreigners alike. So someone from the mainland who moved to the islands a few years ago would be shut out just the same as a non-resident looking for a holiday flat.

The draft, the ‘Ley para garantizar el acceso a la vivienda a los residentes en Canarias’ (law to guarantee access to housing for Canary residents), would last 10 years once in force. Any sale breaking the rules would be void and couldn’t be entered in the Registro de la Propiedad (Property Registry), although homes passed down through inheritance would be exempt. 

Two homes per person at most

Even those who pass the residency test would face a cap. Nobody could buy more than two homes on the islands and they’d have to be in different municipalities, with anyone who already owns two or more blocked from buying again.

Companies and investment firms would only be allowed to buy if their business is selling or renting homes to individuals, a rule aimed squarely at stopping properties ending up as holiday lets. The limits would also cover rent-to-buy deals and some arrangements that give someone the right to live in a home without actually owning it.

The regional government, a coalition of Coalición Canaria (CC) and the Partido Popular (PP) led by President Fernando Clavijo, points to the islands’ limited land, fragile biodiversity and gentrification. Around a third of homes changing hands in the Canaries go to foreign buyers, according to figures cited by the government, and many of those end up as holiday rentals.

Brits could face a second hurdle from local councils 

A separate proposal would rewrite Spain’s local government law to hand town halls more powers of their own. Councils could charge non-residents a tax on overnight stays and ban holiday lets in specific areas.

It would also give them a say over homes bought or rented by non-EU citizens who’ve lived in the municipality for less than two years, a group that has included Brits since Brexit. However, exactly how far that power would go isn’t yet clear from the details made public so far.

Brussels could still have the final word

The draft tries to get around EU rules on discrimination by targeting residence rather than nationality, leaning on Article 349 of the EU treaties, which allows special treatment for outermost regions including the Canaries. EU law generally bans restrictions on the movement of capital though, property purchases included, and Brussels has said limits are only possible when there’s an overriding public interest and they’re proportionate.

That’s a real hurdle, as the islands’ biggest non-resident buyers over the past decade have been Germans and Italians, both EU citizens. Spain asked the European Commission on Wednesday January 14 to allow limits on non-residential purchases in the Canaries, and no decision has been announced since.

Clavijo, speaking in Dublin on Tuesday September 29, said he saw a window of “around three or four months” under Ireland’s EU presidency to make the case.

A plan sent to Madrid weeks before an election

The draft is one of the conditions CC set the Spanish Government in return for backing the first of the so-called Maricarmen decrees, the eviction protections drawn up after an 87-year-old woman was evicted from her Madrid flat in September. Congress rejected the decrees on Friday October 2, and the 10-year rule wasn’t included in the new housing decrees the Council of Ministers then approved.

Now, with the Cortes (Spain’s parliament) dissolved ahead of the general election on Sunday November 29, any royal decree-law would need the backing of the Diputación Permanente (the small committee that stands in while parliament is dissolved).

CC has voted against attempts to limit foreign purchases in the regional parliament before, and the regional government’s President has ruled out a tax on foreign buyers. This week he said the problem had to be tackled through both supply and demand, “unless you want to impose a dictatorial communist system”. 

So for now nothing has changed, and anyone buying in the Canaries can still complete a purchase under the current rules. Whether the 10-year test ever becomes law depends on Madrid picking it up first, and then on Brussels letting it stand.