G'day SilentCQuote:
Originally Posted by silentC
On the real-estate question, when I lived there, admittedly some time ago, the basic residency rules were along the lines of:
1. Island born, purchase permitted
2. Not island born, for the first first 10 years permitted to rent, but only property without its own front door (e.g. a flat), after another 10 years, and for another 10, i.e. 20 years, permitted to rent anything. After that 20 years, will be considered for approval to purchase.
3. Exceptions, under (if I recall correctly, housing law 1(1)k), someone who's annual taxes (at a flat 20%, remember), exceed GBP50k (i.e. an income >GBP250k) may be considered as eligible to purchase an approved property...
Unless, the non island-born person marries an island born one, then the same rules as in point 1 above apply to the couple. If, however, a divorce occurs, then the non-island born person must vacate any "owned" property forthwith, and is subject to point 2 above if that person wishes to remain in the island.
There have been a number of instances where a couple have married, spent the loot and bought or built a house, only for a divorce to occur and the poor mutt/***** (no gender friction intended http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ons/icon12.gif) who isn't island born has had to debunk sharpishly, typically at firesale rateshttp://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...cons/icon8.gif
Given that the island is only c 12mi x 8mi, and the static population was, then, around 65,000 (growing to well over 250,000 in summer, taking into account tourists and whatnot), there really wasn't all that much land to spread around (plenty of manure, thoughhttp://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ons/icon10.gif)
It was a bit odd, though that a number of 'personalities' who'd "made it' could, despite the rather draconian laws, find and but themselves some very nice examples of homes...
Cheers!
