90 million Europeans ahead

The parliamentary spokesperson for MÉS per Mallorca, Lluís Apesteguia, predicts the future of housing: either non-residents are prohibited from buying property, or the future of young and not-so-young islanders looks bleak.

220 million people live in Western and Nordic countries. Of these, 40%, some 90 million, have higher incomes than islanders and, therefore, more opportunities to buy a home.

Why do they want to buy here? Because for decades we've been urging them to come and spend their holidays, to fall in love, and we've also been urging them to rent. So, why not buy them?

And they have, and continue to, done so. So much so that in municipalities like Andratx, they already own 50% of the properties. Properties sold by the islanders themselves, who, with every right and the inconsistency in the world, buy from the highest bidder and then complain that their children can't afford anything.

There are many more of them, they have higher incomes, and they want to keep buying. To believe that building more houses is a solution is to refuse to see the problem. The market will operate regardless of the number of apartments built, except for those designated as strictly subsidized housing.

The State has already taken steps to obtain an EU exemption for the Canary Islands to limit purchases. It shouldn't suffice to be told that the other archipelago is an outermost region. We are an extremely overcrowded and extremely precarious territory when it comes to access to housing.

It's not impossible. It's necessary to get the State, the sole interlocutor with the EU, to understand the urgent situation. A well-written report, free of errors, is needed to explain something very simple: young islanders will never own homes if purchases are not restricted to foreigners.