A Critical Vote for Canarian Tourism
This Wednesday, November 12th, the Parliament of the Canary Islands is set to vote on the Sustainable Management of Tourist Housing Use Law. If the “in voce” amendments presented by opposition groups are not considered, the result will be the practical eradication of the vacation rental sector for thousands of private homeowners across the Archipelago.
The Fatal Flaw in the Legislation
The law’s fatal flaw lies in the impossibility for owners to comply with the municipal requirement for “Actividades Clasificadas” (Classified Activities). The reason is simple: the Classified Activities Law was approved in 2011 and did not contemplate vacation rentals, which were later regulated by Decree 113 in 2015. The Canarian Vacation Rental Association (ASCAV) has been unsuccessfully requesting a modification to the 2011 law ever since.
Pushing Through Without Consensus
Currently, the CoaliciĆ³n Canaria (CC) and Partido Popular (PP) parties have made it clear they will not apply the “Canarian way of doing politics” and instead plan to “steamroller” the law through without consensus. This decision ignores the only association representing the sector, the business association of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, professionals, virtually all sectors that depend on this activity, opposition parties, civil society, and, of course, the thousands of Canarian families dedicated to vacation rentals.
A Stunning Contradiction in Government Policy
The scandalous part is that the regional government demonizes vacation rentals in the Canary Islands in its explanatory statement for the law (spanning over 40 pages), while at the national level, it praises their benefits. In the Seville Declaration signed by thirteen Autonomous Communities (all governed by the PP, including Canarias), it states verbatim: “Third. Separate Housing and Tourism. We affirm that the housing access crisis is a structural problem unrelated to tourism and provoked by the failure of the State Housing Law and various factors that require decisive actions based on a correct diagnosis of the problem, not on the continuous search for culprits. Tourist Vacation Homes (VUT), when well-regulated by the competent regional authority, are an accommodation model that contributes to the revitalization of urban centers and complements our offer; they are not the cause of inequality or housing access problems affecting the entire country.”
What the Government of the Canary Islands recently signed institutionally in the Seville Declaration is the complete opposite of what it is applying in the islands, where the executive blames vacation rentals for inequality and housing access difficulties, while nationally it affirms the exact opposite.
Evidence Ignored, Consequences Overlooked
Comprehensive reports from the College of Economists of Las Palmas, the Economic and Social Council, as well as several renowned jurists submitted to the Ministry of Tourism and Employment, support exactly what ASCAV has persistently defended, demonstrated, and advocated. If the law is approved as drafted and the presented amendments are not considered, the consequences will be catastrophic for the thousands upon thousands of Canarian families and residents who own a vacation rental, plus all the management and intermediary companies that service them.
Consolidating Tourism in the Hands of a Few
If the government ultimately votes the law through as it stands, tourism will cease to belong to ALL Canarians and will remain in the hands of a few, the usual suspects. It will mean more poverty, more precariousness, and will expel thousands of Canarian families from the tourism business, despite the known fact that this law will not generate more residential housing for Canarians. It will be an economic and social hecatomb.
According to a report from the College of Economists of Las Palmas, 67% of these vacation rentals never were and will never become residential rentals, as they are located in residential tourist complexes. The vast majority of registered vacation rentals are in tourist municipalities, not residential ones, meaning they do not detract housing from residents. The government also hides its inability to bring the more than 211,000 empty homes in the Canary Islands onto the market.
A Wasteful Precedent and a Clear Objective
It is particularly scandalous that the government recently launched a project endowed with more than 8 million euros to provide affordable residential rental housing on the market, with the result of securing only one property. This represents an unprecedented waste of public money. Therefore, the only objective of this law can be to yield to large holders and investment funds against the interests and welfare of countless families. Why is there no will to differentiate and protect small vacation rental owners? The answer is evident: it leaves “the sharks and the anchovies in the same fishbowl.”
A Plea for Sensibility and the Stakes at Hand
ASCAV hopes and wishes that at the last minute, during the Parliamentary Plenary, the government will show a minimum of sensibility towards the fate of the thousands of families who own a vacation rental and all the professionals or companies that manage them, who otherwise will undoubtedly be condemned to disappear, swelling the unemployment lists. The consequences will not only be devastating for private owners and their management companies but for society as a whole.
More than 2 billion euros in direct economic impact and revenue generated by the vacation rental sector in the Canary Islands would disappear, causing a budgetary hole in taxes, IGIC (Canarian VAT), and the regional portion of IRPF (Income Tax). Specifically, it would mean forgoing a larger budget allocation than the one approved for housing and mobility in the 2026 budget.
It goes without saying that if it is already expensive for the middle classes, Canarian families, or young people to travel between the islands today, after the disappearance of vacation rentals, it will be even more so due to the already foreseeable increase in prices.
