Home Affairs Minister on Friday denied claims that the banning of the sale of certain properties to non-Bermudians hurt black Bermudians more than whites.

Mr. Horton said the numbers of Bermudians, both black and white, owning houses in the top end bracket which has been affected by the policy change was minuscule compared to the numbers of houses throughout Bermuda.

He added: "The numbers owned by black Bermudians can be counted on the fingers of two hands."

He said of the 347 houses in Bermuda with an ARV of more than $126,000, 105 houses were Bermudian owned while 91 were owned by Bermudian trusts.

"The 105 houses out of more than 25,000 households in Bermuda amounts to less than half a percent of all dwelling units.

"Furthermore only a fraction of the 105 Bermudians have been affected by the new policy, namely those few Bermudians who planned to sell their house to a non-Bermudian.

"All Bermudians who own houses with an ARV below $126,000 (1999 valuation list) have never been able to sell to non-Bermudians and are therefore totally unaffected by the recent change in policy."

Mr. Horton was responding to Senator Richards who was quoted as stating in the Senate that: "with the stroke of a pen, you have devalued Bermudian real estate."

But Mr. Horton said demand for housing was as strong today as it was the day before the policy changed.

"The housing market is driven by supply and demand ? 98.5 percent of the housing market is totally unaffected by the change in policy."

And Mr. Horton hit back at Sen. Richards' colleague Kim Swan who had said Government should have stopped issuing licences sanctioning property sales if it believed trusts were being used to front the sales for non-Bermudians.

Mr. Horton said: "People, especially members of the Opposition, do not seem to be listening.

"Trusts are hidden by legal veils so that it is very difficult, under the current law, to find out whether any given land-owning trust is 'fronting' for a non-Bermudian."

Not granting a licence did not solve the problem said Mr. Horton as in one case Government refused but the property is still owned by a trust with a non-Bermudian living in it.

And he said Sen. Swan's claim that Government could simply raise the ARV limit didn't wash either as non-Bermudians ignore the ARV level.

"That is what is so invidious about the practice of fronting. They are taking undeveloped land and houses well below the ARV and building multi-million dollar houses that in the normal course of events would never come back into Bermudian hands.

"Raising the ARVs in the hope of stopping 'fronting' is like rearranging deck chairs on the ."

The Opposition's said none of the top end property the new regulations applied to would end up in the hands of non-Bermudians.

She said her party did not support people flouting the law.