Rebels keep blowing up luxury vacation homes to scare off foreign buyers on this French Hamptons island

Masked rebels are bombing million-dollar vacation homes on the French island of Corsica, and buyers are still lining up to purchase there anyway.Since October 2023, 34 homes across 20 towns were bombed or torched in a single, and disturbing, overnight spree. Corsica’s armed independence movement, which doesn’t appear to have killed anyone, has kept up a steady campaign of attacks on second homes, mostly empty vacation properties owned by mainlanders and foreigners.Another home was blown up as recently as March 2026, according to the New York Times.

The National Liberation Front of Corsica, the paramilitary wing of a 50-year-old independence movement, wants outsiders off the island for good. Last month roughly 15 masked, armed members of the group held a press conference to say so directly, warning tourists and second-home buyers to stay away.“Until our national rights are recognized and respected, we have only one message to send them,” one member read from a prepared statement.“Stay home.

And, if that’s not the case, do not consider yourself safe on our national territory.”The threats have not slowed the market.Second homes now account for 37% of Corsica’s housing stock, and as much as 50% in some coastal towns, according to a 2026 report from the Corsican Assembly. Only about 61 Americans live on the island full time, according to a 2020 report from the Local, making it the least popular region in France for US expats, largely due to its lack of a major city and pricier travel links to the mainland.Politically, the bombing campaign has paid off.

The French Senate votes next month on a constitutional amendment recognizing Corsica’s distinct language — far more similar to Italian than French — culture and history, and granting its local government new authority over zoning and waste management.It would be the first time any French region received that status.“It was a tactical success,” André Fazi, a political scientist at the Unive...