The Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce believes Government is exhibiting double standards when it comes to foreigners owning property on the Island.

Chairman Stuart Hayward said yesterday the group supports moderating the ownership of Bermuda land by non-Bermudians.

But he added: "We feel compelled to highlight the apparent contradiction between what the government says, as stated by Government Ministers, and what is actually practised, as in policies for foreign ownership of fractional housing units."

In particular Mr. Hayward said that while the Government was requiring some mixed-status couples, where one person is Bermudian and the other is a foreigner, to apply for a licence to own a property on the Island it was allowing foreigners to purchase fractional and leaseback tourism units.

"While the fundamentally discriminatory aspect of the above law is outside our mandate, BEST finds that government's rationale for this Amendment Act is contradicted by policies put forward by Government in the Bermuda Plan 2008 that both enables and sanctions taking land out of Bermudians' hands," he said.

"A careful reading of the Bermuda Plan 2008 reveals that the Development Applications Board can approve commercial and tourism development on conservation-land zoned for Recreation, as well as on land zoned Residential 1, the most densely populated residential land in Bermuda.

"What many Bermudians may not realise is that tourism development includes fractional ownership units, a type of condominium that allows ownership-in-perpetuity by non-Bermudians who do not reside full-time in Bermuda, that is, ownership that need never revert to Bermudian hands.

"This appears to present a contradiction between what the Government is saying and what it is doing as far as retaining Bermuda land in Bermudian hands.

"We would welcome hearing an explanation and, if there is none, a reconciliation of statement with practice: either we are going to enable and sanction the use of our land for second-home ownership by non-residential non-Bermudians as the Bermuda Plan 2008 permits, or we are going to preserve it for Bermudians and their families as these recent Ministerial statements imply. We cannot do both."

The Government has also recently announced that proposed legislation could allow exempt companies to purchase tourism units as well.

Mixed-status couples have until June 22 to comply with the law — which requires some Bermudians married or living with a foreign partner to get a $1,375 land licence. The penalties for those in breach of the law are a jail term of up to five years and/or a fine of up to $1 million.

Licences are needed where foreigners provide financial assistance for the acquisition of property; HSBC says that could include paying household bills such as electricity and water but the Department says not.

Shadow Attorney General Trevor Moniz has said Government should extend the deadline while others have said Government should consider changing the law altogether.

• See Editorial –