Owning a second home on the Island could soon be a thing of the past for Bermudians married to expatriates — as expectant mother Monika Burrill has just discovered.

The 32-year-old accountant owns a condo in Paget and recently bought a new property in Southampton with her Canadian husband Phil, 36. The couple assumed they’d be able to rent the first property out and use the income to help towards the mortgage on their new three-bedroom home.

But under the Bermuda Immigration and Protection Amendment Act 2007 — which became law last month — that may not be possible after June 2010.

The new law requires Bermudians and their non-Bermudian spouses to obtain a licence for any property which the expatriate partner benefits from or contributes to financially. Lawyers are interpreting the legislation to mean that such couples will only be able to get a licence for one property. Any additional homes which are rented out are likely to be viewed as benefiting the spouse and are in breach of the law.

Mrs. Burrill said she and her husband, who already have two Bermudian children, now expect to have to sell the two-bedroom Paget condo before June 21, 2010 — the deadline Government has set for couples who owned property benefiting the foreign spouse before the new law came into effect.

She said: “I’m currently trying to rent my first house but these rent monies are going to come to us. Of course he (her husband) is benefiting financially, unless I was taking the rent and sticking it in a separate fund. We are not selling it until we have to, but we assume we will have to.”

Mrs. Burrill said she and her husband were especially annoyed because he sold some land in Canada in order to buy the second property. “We have lost the land in Canada and now we’ll lose out again.

“Do they want us to invest money overseas? Why can’t I invest in my own country? I have Bermudian children. The reason we did it was to set them up.

“Selling a house is not cheap. And guess who will benefit from the sale? The Government — which will get stamp duty.”

She added that countless couples would be affected by the change in the law. “We are not the only ones in this position so I think we are going to sit it out a little and see what happens.”

Immigration Permanent Secretary Robert Horton explained last week that Bermudians with foreign spouses could own as many homes as they liked — so long as they used their own money to pay for them and did not rely on their partner’s wealth.

He said foreign spouses could only have an interest in a single property — so if they lived in another property or received any of the rent for that property they would be breaking the law.