Realtors and property owners must wait to hear whether the Supreme Court will overturn a controversial government ban on Bermudians selling their luxury homes to foreigners.

Puisne judge Geoffrey Bell, who has heard a Bermudian couple claim the policy thwarted their ability to sell their $45 million home, adjourned the case in order to consider it further.

Alan and Vera Marshall say they cannot sell GoldenEye, located in the Tucker's Town neighbourhood dubbed 'Billionaire's Row,' as no Bermudian can afford the asking price.

The rule prior to February 2005 was that Bermudians could sell their homes to foreigners as long as they were above an Annual Rental Value fixed by the government to protect affordable housing, which GoldenEye far exceeds.

However, the amendment to the policy means that this now only applies to non-Bermudians, and Saul Froomkin QC, acting for the Marshalls, told the court last week that this is discriminatory against Bermudians. He also claimed that the ban, which came into place while GoldenEye was on the market, frustrated the legitimate expectation his clients had, based on the long-standing previous policy, that they would be able to sell overseas.

The court heard that GoldenEye ? so-named as it lies in a prime position for viewing the path of the rising and setting sun ? is believed to be the most expensive home on the local market.

It was the subject of interest from a number of wealthy international 'names' prior to the ban. According to local speculation, these included US TV superstar Oprah Winfrey, although the Marshalls have not commented on this.

Solicitor General Wilhelm Bourne, concluding the case for Government yesterday, repeated his earlier point that the ban protects land for ordinary Bermudians.

The public interest in this, he argued, due to "the tiny size of the Island" outweighed in importance any expectation that the couple may have had to sell abroad.

He said that as home affairs minister, Randoph Horton has the discretion to depart from the policy in special circumstances and added that there was no discrimination against Bermudians in the policy under the Human Rights Act or the constitution.

The Solicitor General asked the judge to accept the presumption that any policy set by the Minister would be lawful and rational, and invited the court to respect the Minister's authority and not challenge it.

However, as had been the case on Friday, the judge told Mr. Bourne on several occasions that he did understand the relevance of the points he was making.

After hearing the argument that the Minister's ruling should not be challenged by the court, the judge responded: "No matter what decision the Minister makes are you saying that the court should not interfere with that? Isn't that what public law is about?"

Mr. Bourne responded that this was not a proper case for mounting a challenge upon.

After the submissions were concluded, Mr. Justice Bell said that once his judgment had been delivered to the lawyers acting for both sides they should agree a date for the matter to to return to court.