A Corsican politician has come under fire for claiming that island homes should be reserved for natives, property-abroad.com reports.

Paul Giacobbi claimed that non-residents should be banned from buying properties in Corsica and France as a whole. This, he claimed, was because current procedures are taking their toll on local people, often forcing them out of their own market.

His claims have drawn fire from anti-nationalists, however, who claimed that it is non-constitutional and is directly against the whole notion of equality.

Among them was Marie-Dominique Roustan-Lanfranchi, who claimed that Giacobbi's restrictions on international real estate investors would create differences above the law.

Reinforcing her argument, Roustan-Lanfranchi claimed that Giacobbi was, wrongly, assuming that Corsica was alone in the issue. Instead, she pointed to individual regions of Paris, which have had their fair share of similar property speculations in recent years. Now, Parisien property is booming and providing a huge boost to the local economy, at times when many areas are still recovering from the credit crunch.  

Instead, Roustan-Lanfranchi claimed that Corsica's biggest issue was an overly conservative approach to property development that is keeping supply far below demand. This, she said, is what's raising prices and causing locals to be priced out. Rectifying this, however, would involve dedicating more land over to developments, as the current allocation is too little, thelocal.fr claims.

Are you looking to buy property in France ? Dordogne , Paris , Saint-nicolas-du-pélem , Charente , Grimaud

Are you looking to rent property in France ? Paris , Cannes , Bordeaux , Lyon , Nice

Author

  1. avatar
    David Howells