Archipelago Faces Critical Housing Deficit
The Canary Islands need an estimated 44,000 new homes to meet demand created by new households formed between 2020 and 2024. The severe difficulties in finding a place to live led the current regional government to declare a housing emergency shortly after taking office. This initiative took the form of a decree (1/2024) in February 2024.
Land Transfer Scheme Yields Meagre Results
The decree includes measures to accelerate construction by having municipalities transfer land to the autonomous community. Nearly two years on, the contribution via this route has been poor. Only 13,347.72 square metres have passed into the hands of the regional government, an area suitable for more than 75 homes. The exact number cannot be determined because the suitability report for the land ceded by Puntagorda (6,090 square metres) does not include the number of properties that surface will hold.
According to data from the Canary Islands Housing Institute (Icavi), another municipality on La Palma, Puntallana (1,971 square metres for 22 homes), is on the list of contributing councils. The list is completed by Gran Canaria’s Tejeda (3,807.35 square metres and 17 homes) and San Mateo (510.74 and nine houses), and Tenerife’s Los Realejos (968.63 and 27).
Municipal Projects Seek to Bridge the Gap
However, this is just one route to speed up processing that construction industry businesses say is not the only way to reduce the cited deficit of 44,000 homes. Last week, the Councillor for Municipal Housing in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Belén Mesa, detailed changes introduced to the agreement signed with Icavi – to which it transfers ownership of the development – to build 226 homes in Cuevas Blancas and 37 in María Jiménez. The investment amounts to 25 million euros, of which the island council (Cabildo) contributes six.
In August, her counterpart in the Gran Canarian capital, Mauricio Roque, stated that the municipality has land available “to build 2,000 public homes,” but immediately tempered the good news by adding, “the funding is missing.” Among other projects, 27 houses are under construction on the central León y Castillo street, 241 in Tamaraceite – distributed across three different developments – and 63 in El Secadero, in collaboration with the Cabildo. All of these are included in the agreement signed by the local administration with the previous Canary Islands government, both led by the PSOE.
Political Tensions and Tourist Hotspots
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria City Council prefers to cede land to the Housing Society announced by the central government and is waiting for the mechanism to be detailed. The relationship with the Government of the Canary Islands is less fluid – the leading political formations in both institutions are of different stripes, PSOE and CC (Coalición Canaria) – and there have been two clashes over two funding refusals. The capital’s council demands that the regional government cover the cost of 115 homes on Concejal García Feo street – Roque advanced that the council will end up building them with its own funds – and 136 distributed across two developments of identical size (68 each) in Tamaraceite Sur.
In August 2024, San Cristóbal de La Laguna ceded to Icavi two plots integrated into the Geneto 5 Partial Plan, totalling around 2,350 square metres. The objective is to build 61 homes for people over 65. At the start of this year, the body dependent on the Regional Ministry of Housing held a meeting with officials from Telde Town Council to advance the transfer of land to speed up the construction of publicly-owned properties. Furthermore, the possibility of completing work on another 132 homes in La Jardinera (El Goro) was explored.
The more tourist-heavy municipalities face the problem of providing housing possibilities for workers in the accommodation sector. San Bartolomé de Tirajana has an active agreement with the public company Visocan to promote and build an undetermined number of housing assets, in addition to acquiring 20 homes that are already finished in Castillo del Romeral. Another example is the 3,000 square metres – worth 1.3 million euros – that Adeje Town Council has ceded to a publicly-owned company of its own to build a total of 90 affordable homes.
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