Plan: Purchase of real estate in Estonia to be banned for Russian and Belarusian citizens

TALLINN – The Ministry of the Interior will urgently begin preparing amendments to the Act on Restrictions on Acquisition of Immovables, which would strip Russian and Belarusian citizens without long-term residence permits, and companies where they are the beneficial owners, of the right to purchase real estate in Estonia.

Minister of the Interior Igor Taro stated that against the backdrop of continued aggression by the Kremlin and its satellites, real estate acquisition by Russian and Belarusian citizens with unknown backgrounds, who are in Estonia temporarily or have only recently arrived, poses a security threat.

"With few exceptions, we have forbidden them from coming to and staying in Estonia, and it is logical that they should also not have the right to purchase real estate here, as it can be used for intelligence and sabotage operations, including preparing positions that could be used against us in crisis situations," Taro said. "This is a real security threat, and we must move from restrictions to outright bans, as several neighboring EU and NATO member states have done. We know how similar transactions have concerned the authorities in Finland, Norway, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, and other countries who are trying to see behind these deals, and our problem is the same," the Estonian interior minister added.

Although certain restrictions on acquiring real estate are currently in place in areas along the Estonian-Russian border and on small islands, these are not sufficient as, according to the minister of the interior, they are not effective.

"Russian and Belarusian citizens residing in Estonia with a long-term residence permit will retain the ability to buy, sell, inherit, or gift real estate, because we know who these people are, as we have checked their backgrounds before granting the long-term residence permit, and imposing a ban on them is not currently justified," Taro said.

As of January 9, there were 1,476 Belarusian citizens with temporary residence permits and 1,190 with long-term residence permits living in Estonia, along with 7,797 Russian citizens with temporary residence permits and 70,237 with long-term residence permits.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, approximately 1,000 Russian citizens have conducted real estate transactions in Estonia, according to Land Registry data. Their connections to Estonia are unknown, as they lack an Estonian personal identification code, which is typically issued with a residence permit.