New Caledonia's pro-independence parties want to ban foreigners from buying real estate.
Residential areas in Noumea, New Caledonia south of the city. 2008 Photo: MARC LE CHELARD / AFP
A law has been proposed to restrict the sale of existing property to New Caledonian citizens.
The parties said, just like in Australia and New Zealand, foreigners should only be allowed to obtain property if it was new construction.
They said such a law would help young locals obtain property near town centres as they currently struggled to compete with potential buyers from overseas.
They cited a property bubble, with growing disparity between people in luxurious villas and those in shantytowns.
New Caledonian citizenship would be conferred to indigenous Kanaks and people who had been residents since 1994.
Such a law would exclude thousands of French citizens living in New Caledonia from being able to buy existing housing.
On Sunday, voters will go to the polls in a referendum on independence from France.
Should they opt for full sovereignty, Paris would draw up a law to determine who in New Caledonia would retain French citizenship.
