Estonia to introduce stricter rules for buying real estate by Russian, Belarusian citizens

MOSCOW. Jan 29 (Interfax) - The Estonian Interior Ministry has proposed banning the purchase of real estate by Russian and Belarusian citizens without permanent residence status, which may apply to about 10,000 foreigners, ERR said.

Estonian Interior Minister Igor Taro put forward the initiative on Thursday.

He said the ministry would start drafting the respective legislative amendments immediately. The amendments will ban the purchase of real estate in Estonia by both Russian and Belarusian citizens without permanent residence status and by enterprises whose actual beneficiaries such citizens are.

The purchase of real estate by Russian and Belarusian citizens with "unknown backgrounds" is a national security risk against the backdrop of the ongoing Ukrainian conflict, he said.

The current restrictions on the purchase of real estate by foreigners in border territories and on small islands are not effective enough, Taro said. He said that Estonia should proceed from restrictions to outright bans, as several neighboring EU and NATO member states, among them Finland, Norway, Sweden, Lithuania and Latvia, have done, he said.

Meanwhile, Russian and Belarusian citizens with permanent resident status in Estonia would retain the right to buy, sell, inherit and gift real estate.

"We know who these people are, as we have vetted their backgrounds before granting them so-called long-term residence permits," Taro said.

According to the Estonian Interior Ministry, there were 1,190 Belarusian citizens and 70,200 Russian citizens with long-term residence permits, alongside 1,480 Belarusian citizens and 7,800 Russian citizens with temporary residence permits in Estonia as of January 9.