Housing Minister David Burch has urged expats who own land in Bermuda to validate their licences as soon as possible.

Expats who own land under a licence granted prior to August 2007 must have their licences validated before June 22, next year. Under Bermuda law no more than 400 acres of land can be owned by licensed expats, who are known as restricted persons in the Act, in any parish and no more than 2,000 acres of the Island can be owned by licensed expats. Sen. Burch said: "As far back as January 31, 1976, the then Minister of Labour and Immigration acknowledged that this problem existed when he said 'I conclude that there was a possibility that the 2,000 acres had been exceeded'.

"Over the past two years the Department of Immigration has sent out several information newsletters that detail licence holders' legal responsibility as well as useful background information and guidance on how a licence should be validated.

"As one might expect, given the three-year period in which to validate a land licence, licence holders have been slow in completing the validation process. To date the Registrar General has validated licences that account for almost a third of the 2,000 acres."

He added that Bermudians who acquire licensed land and non-Bermudians who obtained a licence to hold land but no longer require a licence must also notify the Registrar-General so that the acreage of that land can be taken out of the tally of licensed land. Land will cease to be subject to licensing if the non-Bermudian licence holder obtains Bermuda status or the land is transferred to a Bermudian.

Sen. Burch said: "I cannot stress enough how important this exercise is to the future of Bermuda, not only from the point of view of simple compliance with the law — but more importantly to ensure that there are land owning opportunities for future generations of Bermudians."

Any interested party can visit the Department of Immigration website at http://www.immigration.gov.bm to access all legislation related to land holding and can access this material by clicking on the heading "Land Acquisition".