Holiday lets double as housing crisis deepens
The island of Lanzarote now has 11,083 registered holiday rental properties, according to data from the Canary Islands Government itself. The island’s PSOE socialist party has denounced that this figure represents a staggering increase of more than 115% compared to June 2023, which they directly link to the worst housing crisis in the island’s history.
“A right, not a limitless business”
María Dolores Corujo, the PSOE’s insular secretary, states that today on Lanzarote, housing is not only expensive—it simply doesn’t exist. “Since Betancort and Clavijo have been in government, finding a home has become impossible for most people who live and work here,” she said. Corujo highlighted that in June 2023, coinciding with the start of Oswaldo Betancort’s term at the Lanzarote Island Council and Fernando Clavijo’s at the Canary Islands Government, there were around 5,198 holiday lets. “We have gone from just over 5,000 to more than 11,000 holiday homes. This growth is not accidental; it responds to a call effect generated by the announcement of a law with no moratorium and no limits, while deliberately refusing to apply the Housing Law to curb rental prices,” she criticised.
The socialist leader has accused the Canarian Coalition party of having “put a ‘for rent’ sign on the whole of Lanzarote,” prioritising the tourism business over residents’ right to housing. “They have let the market run wild and today families, young people, and workers on this island are paying the price,” she added.
Council claims disputed
Corujo was especially critical of the Lanzarote Island Council’s attitude, which recently boasted about having “withdrawn around 800 holiday homes from the market.” In her view, “it is shameless to boast about 800 fewer when under their management almost 6,000 new holiday homes have entered the market. That is the real balance of their policy,” she emphasised.
The socialists believe that massaging the figures does not change reality: “Lanzarote is experiencing the worst housing crisis in its recent history, with unaffordable rents, residents being forced out of their neighbourhoods, and young people unable to leave home.” Corujo reproached the Canary Islands Government for “refusing to declare stressed areas, intervene in prices, and adopt protective measures for the resident population,” which leaves access to housing in the hands of the market. “The result of their model is an island increasingly inaccessible to its own people,” concluded Corujo, who stressed that “housing is a right, not a limitless business.” She warned that “against this unjust model, they will find the PSOE of Lanzarote standing in their way, defending the right to live on this island.”
Official figures tell a different story
Earlier this week, the Lanzarote Island Council reported that its Territorial Planning department had withdrawn 896 holiday rentals from the tourist market between December 2024 and December 2025. According to the official insular registry data, which differ from those provided by the PSOE citing Canary Government sources, this reduced the number of such accommodations from 8,209 to 7,313. The Island Institution explained that the removal of these properties was due to a lack of the mandatory classified activities licence required for the legal operation of the business, and because they were not registered in the Land Registry—an essential requirement for regularisation.
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