Political Push for Holiday Rental Halt in La Laguna
The Drago Verdes Canarias party is taking a motion to the plenary session of San Cristóbal de La Laguna Town Council, seeking a moratorium on tourist rentals in the municipality. The party contends that the local rules permitting licences have become obsolete since the Canary Islands Holiday Rental Law came into force.
Clash Between New Law and Old Local Plans
In a statement released this Saturday, Drago explained that La Laguna council is currently granting licences based on an Interpretive Instruction from 10 December 2019. They describe this legal instrument as “exploiting a legal loophole and applying a very lax criterion of compatibility between residential and tourist use.” However, Article 3.3 of the new Canary Islands Holiday Rental Law specifies that the tourist use of a dwelling is only permitted if the town’s urban planning explicitly allows for it. Drago points out that La Laguna’s General Town Plan, which dates from 2004, does not include such provision.
Councillor Cites “Legislative Incompatibility”
Speaking on this “legislative incompatibility,” Drago Verdes Canarias councillor Carmen Peña stated, “The new Canary Islands law establishes that tourist use should be exceptional compared to residential use, but the trend in La Laguna is completely the opposite.” Peña argues that this law is “too late and insufficient,” but also warned that “we are going to cling to it as much as we can to put a brake on the housing emergency.”
“Since we entered opposition in 2023, we have not stopped presenting initiatives related to housing,” continued Peña. She specified that these motions have concerned “holiday rentals, rental prices, sales, and student residences,” adding, “we will not tire of presenting initiatives to counter the indifference and inaction of the governing team.”
Demand for Action and New Inspection Office
In this regard, the Drago councillor noted that in the past the governing team “hid behind ambiguous competences to avoid legislating on holiday rentals, but with the new Law there is no room for doubt, the competences are municipal.” She added, “they no longer have an excuse.”
The motion, to be defended in the plenary session this coming Monday, calls for the immediate annulment of the Interpretive Instruction on holiday home use in La Laguna’s town plan, deeming it incompatible with the new Law 6/2025. It also requests formally informing Tenerife’s Island Council (Cabildo) and the Canary Islands Government that, due to the lack of explicit provision for tourist use on residential land in La Laguna’s current planning, a precautionary suspension of new registrations in the General Tourism Registry for the municipality should be enacted.
Furthermore, it seeks to declare La Laguna a municipality in a state of de facto moratorium for new Holiday Homes until the detailed planning required by the new law is approved. Drago also calls for the creation of a Municipal Office for Tourism Inspection and Housing Regulation. This office would be equipped with the necessary technical, legal, and human resources to exercise the control and sanctioning powers granted by Article 7.4 of the new law, ensuring existing holiday lets strictly comply with regulations.
No post found!