Both Sides of Selling Real Estate?

A news item in this week's local Guadalajara Reporter, our English-language newspaper, reports two stories concerning real estate on its front page: one indicating that the selling boom is far from over, with the average listing selling at $250,000 (!); the second, that inmigración is about to come down hard on gringos selling that same real estate, when they don't have a license to do so.

This topic has become quite a bone of contention among licensed sellers, both gringo and Mejicano alike. Inmigración looks fairly on people like Cecilia, who has lived here for almost 30 years, speaks the language, has strong ties to the community both socially and in business, and has been legally licensed. But the fact that at least 50% of agents around Lakeside are not Mexican has irritated a lot of Mexican agents-- and buyers.

There are, by recent count, over 180 individual agents registered here. That means 90 or more are not indigenous. And apparently a large number of these are not properly licensed, nor do they have proper visa or working-paper status with the Federal/State governments. There is also a grand disparity and a huge frustration over the recent pricing of homes, due to the continuous influx of foreigners (like me). Prices are ridiculously high, forcing housing out of the reach of the majority of the Mexican villagers, and now even beyond the grasp of the type of person who came down here to retire in the first place... because it was cheaper.

It will be interesting to witness the outcome. The question is: should non-Mexicans be able to take over in real estate, or any commercial area, the way they have? What do we do in Canada when something like this begins to appear on our radar? On the other hand, big business can come in and take over large percentages of the technology sector, and governments in both countries give them financial incentives to do so, in the hopes of generating more tax income. Right now, it seems to me to be a two-faced argument. The local public only gets up in arms when it affects them directly.