“And if I have to make it easier for rich white people to own land in Bermuda that is fine!” — MP Bob Richards, House of Assembly, March 1, 2013.

On May 29, 2015, the One Bermuda Alliance passed an amendment to the Immigration and Protection Act which will:

• Allow Permanent Resident Certificate holders to purchase homes or condos of any Annual Rental Value [ARV];

• Reduce the minimum ARV from $177,000 to $153,000 for house purchases for non-Bermudians;

• Allow non-Bermudians to purchase condos with a minimum ARV of $32,400 or higher.

PERPETUATING THE IMBALANCE

Most Bermudians are left wondering where the OBA legislation that promotes Bermudian home ownership is. Only 50 per cent of Bermudian residences are owner occupied compared with the US (69 per cent) and UK (70 per cent).

While 21 per cent of our population is non-Bermudian, an estimated 36 per cent (2,174 acres) of our 6,000 acres of residential-zoned property is owned by non-Bermudians.

Our residential land is already disproportionally out of Bermudian ownership. Bermudians are now wondering where are the efforts to find ways to protect Bermudians struggling to pay their mortgages and hold on to their homes.

Last year, the Bermuda Monetary Authority reported that one out of every eight loans were delinquent, with a staggering 12 per cent of the total loans being nonperforming. This is near double the 5.4 per cent recorded at the end of the first quarter in 2011.

Bermudians are wondering where is this same level of urgency for banking reform that would support Bermudian investment in the real estate industry. In February 2014, Finance Minister Bob Richards said that Bermuda’s banks were hampering the Island’s recovery because the industry’s lending policies were at odds with Bermuda’s national economic interests.

He specifically highlighted the “infinitesimally low” interest rates and the “excessively wide” margins between deposits and loans and that “there is currently no appetite for lending. And to top it off, banks continue to lay off Bermudian staff ... attaining such forward momentum is much more difficult to achieve when such an important economic driver as the banking sector is pulling in the wrong direction.”

Gentrification

“And if I have to make it easier for rich white people to own land in Bermuda that is fine!” — MP Bob Richards House of Assembly, March 1, 2013.

Over the past 2½ years, the OBA has repeatedly created legislation that favours non-Bermudians over Bermudians including:

• On December 4, 2013, the OBA passed the Job Makers’ Act Amendment making it easier for persons to obtain PRC status. These persons are now eligible to own homes in Bermuda.

• On March 22, 2014, the OBA amended the Companies Act granting exempt companies the right to acquire residential land and directly compete with Bermudian landlords in the real estate industry.

We now effectively have “gentrification by legislation”.

Despite the pre-election OBA fluff about “social and economic equality”, OBA MP Bob Richards is now making good on his promise of March 1, 2013: “And if I have to make it easier for rich white people to own land in Bermuda that is fine!”