Dear Sir,

The stumbling block is, er.....Majorca's new Tourism Laws! At least the banks realise, even if the government doesn't, that the majority of apartment buyers only want to stay themselves for a few weeks every Summer and would wish to rent out for as much of the rest of the time as possible, a simple concept which encourages investment in property elsewhere in Europe but curiously is banned on Majorca.

Most buyers need to rent out to make owning worthwhile at all, especially in times of decreasing property values currently being fuelled further by, yes, the new Tourism Laws which have already resulted in some owners being so put off that they have hung the For Sale signs up.

Even those purchasers wanting to live there and those not needing to rent out would not be too happy buying into a complex which would have the shutters down and be almost unoccupied for most of the year, making the apartment-block as unsightly as the vacant hotel it would replace.

The government urgently needs to sit down and re-think this whole matter, without the big hoteliers whispering in their ears, to amend the new Tourism Laws without delay and bring Majorca into the 21st century - otherwise, without the support of the banks and without the buyers, the whole well-meaning concept will be an utter failure.

Yours sincerely
John Lance
Brighton, England