From before, foreigners are banned from owning land or buildings in the border zone areas like Russia has towards Norway, Finland and the Arctic Oceans.
With the new law, similar restrictions could come into force nationwide from 2015, reports RIA Novosti. Preparations for the law are underway, headed by the Ministry of Economic Development in consultations with FSB, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Federal Migration Service.
The proposed law will be designed to prevent ghettos of foreigners inside Russia, a challenge that especially has arisen in Moscow where thousands of fly-in workers from Caucasus and Central Asia now lives.
Izvestia reports that both President Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin have expressed concern in regard to developments of foreign ghettoes. There are about one million foreigners living in Moscow.
It is not clear which governmental agency that could grant permission to foreigners to rent or buy apartments or other kind of property when the law comes into effect. Neither is it clear what will happen to real estate already in the hands of foreigners.
In Murmansk, several Norwegian citizens own flats and Norwegian companies rent real estate at several locations.
When the law banning foreigners from owning land or houses in the border zone areas was introduced some years ago, business communities in both northern Norway and eastern Finland expressed disappointment. They claimed it would be more risky to invest as long their companies could not own the buildings they put their money into or the sport of land where buildings are constructed.
