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Ainhoa, one of the More…
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Ainhoa, one of the most beautiful villages in France, does not want to become one of the most expensive! For months, the pressure has been mounting in the village: houses are selling for exorbitant prices, here 510,000 euros, there 345,000 euros. “We are between 4,000 and 6,000 euros per square meter, who can buy? “, says this member of Ainhoa Beti, created at the end of 2021 to defend the living environment of the village.
The switch to this “restored 350 m² farm on a 2.5 hectare estate” _ bought for 470,000 euros in February 2021 and put up for sale at 1,940,000 euros _ shocked locals unaccustomed to practices on the Basque Coast of investors and other property dealers eager for record profits. “There are few announcements under 400,000 euros, it’s a spiral”, says the representative of Ainhoa Beti, Claudine Martikorena.
Food and housing
“This house in Ainhoa is the symbol of the violence of speculation today, analyzes Joseba Erremundeguy, child of the village and elected to the municipal council of Bayonne. There is, at the same time, the abandonment of agricultural land and it is a pure speculative product. This double problem, food and housing, hits Basque youth hard, ”said the departmental and community adviser.
“It is all the more heartbreaking that this house is not a restored farm, it is barely 40 years old, insists Sylvie Leizagoyen, first deputy mayor of Ainhoa. The municipality fully supports this movement and its inhabitants, because agriculture must remain alive in Ainhoa, where we find the production of three AOCs, Espelette pepper, Ossau-Iraty cheese and Kintoa pork. »
In Ainhoa, a house sold for 470,000 euros in 2021 put back on sale at… 1,940,000 euros shocked the population.
Bertrand Lapègue/SOUTH WEST
Here, a stone’s throw from Dancharia, an entire village mobilized this morning, supported by people familiar with the issues of access to housing, such as Alda or Bizi! “Real estate speculation is like delinquency, mafia influence or war, as long as we are not confronted with it, we do not realize!, says this hardened militant. For years, this price surge has affected the Basque Coast, now it is happening inside, everywhere, Ascarrat, Ayherre, Baïgorri, Saint-Palais and now here. »
The activists presented a rather special Monopoly. Bertrand Lapègue/SOUTH WEST
“There, you see, it’s calm, says this other seasoned activist, there are mostly villagers, families, parents, children, but the slogan is the same as 15 years ago” Euskal herria ez da salgai” when young people were throwing stones in the real estate fairs of Biarritz! The situation can quickly become tense if there is no adequate response from the public authorities. »
The spokespersons of Ainhoa Beti, in Basque and French, recalled, in front of the offending house, their desire to “say no to real estate speculation. The right to have one home comes before the right to have two. And to ask the public authorities to “take their responsibilities”: pre-emption, compensation for furnished tourist accommodation, limitation of second homes…
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