A real-estate broker is seeking to ease fears that Bermuda's affordable housing problem might be worsened when some long-term residents gain the right to buy property in the mid price-range.

Cris Valdes-Dapena, of Property Group Ltd., said she believed the effect on the housing market as a whole would be "neutral" when some long-term residents gain Permanent Residents Certificates due to new legislation.

Her predictions were backed up by Independent M.P. Trevor Moniz, who said he thought the projected negative impact of the Bermuda Immigration and Protection Act 2002 for Bermudians had been exaggerated.

"I'm not denying that there may be a little upward pressure on availability but such pressure as this exists already," he said.

The bill, which passed through the House of Assembly last week, will be accompanied by land policy amendments that will allow long-term residents to buy condominiums regardless of their Annual Rental Value.

Holders of Permanent Resident Certificates will also be able to own single unit homes lower than the minimum value currently set for non-Bermudians. Ms Valdes-Dapena said she could understand why some Bermudians might be scared that allowing some long-term residents to buy properties in the mid price-range would restrict even further their ability to find affordable housing.

But she explained that there would be no discernable impact on the housing market, only a change in the relationships that existing owners and tenants have with their properties.

"For every extra person who wants to buy property, there will be one fewer person wanting to rent, because the people who buy will be vacating properties that they are currently living in.

"In reality this market is seamless. The only pressure is to put bodies into houses. This won't be changed because there will still be the same amount of properties on the whole. The impact of this will be nil."

Ms Valdes-Dapena added that she thought there would be no noticeable impact on how many homes there are available to buy because, as tenants move out of them, landlords would tend to sell them anyway.

She said: "The market tends to equalise itself when you change the nature of ownership from lease-holdings to free-holdings. The structure of ownership will be changed but the only thing that really affects supply and demand is new construction or something like a natural disaster. Bermudians are already hard-pressed to find affordable housing and this won't change. It won't get any worse though."

Mr. Moniz said: "You have to be a little bit careful when making dire predictions about this. These economic matters aren't simple."

He noted that many long-term residents already own properties which were bought in the name of trusts and that these people would not be looking to buy more property anyway. He added: "The market is such that when it goes up there are some winners and there are some losers. The fact is that there is a larger issue here and that is the issue of what is right.

"I don't deny that there may be some impact but that has to be a price that we are willing to pay for Bermuda's success."