canary islands holiday rental law effects

Holiday rental law in Canary Islands: have things improved?

Has the new law worked?

Six months after the Canary Islands’ holiday rental law was approved, enough time has passed to conclude that the legislation has succeeded in halting the unstoppable rise of tourist apartments across the archipelago. That is what the official statistics and the regional holiday homes register suggest. However, there is a catch: this stagnation has done nothing to ease the enormous pressure of the housing crisis, which continues to blight and condemn a large part of the population.

“Not much time has passed to notice the effect of the regulation, but the housing emergency is still there. The saturation is still there,” says Anne Striewe, a member of the Canarina Foundation, an organisation that works to protect the nature and territory of the autonomous community. “I see the same thing. I don’t notice any improvement anywhere,” adds Lidia Cruz, president of the Guanarteme se Mueve neighbourhood association in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

A slight decrease in numbers

The Canary Islands has gone from recording 74,500 holiday homes on the Canary Islands General Tourism Register to having 73,400. That is a decrease of just over 1,100 properties in six months. Meanwhile, the number of tourist apartments “available” – meaning those that have been booked at least once during the same reference month or the previous month – has risen from 42,367 in April to 47,117 in December, according to the Canary Islands Institute of Statistics (ISTAC).

Why the drop was expected

The reduction was anticipated. The new law requires local councils to approve ordinances regulating holiday rentals in their municipalities for the first time. Until they do, not a single new licence can be issued. So far, only Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Pájara and Granadilla de Abona have met this requirement (having already agreed their plans before the law came into force), and no other council has yet followed suit.

The regional government of the Canary Islands has welcomed these early results. Sources from the Ministry of Tourism and Employment, led by Jessica Bueno of the Popular Party, argue that the desired “containment effect” has been achieved. They say tourist apartments are no longer growing in 85 of the archipelago’s 88 municipalities, and the regional executive has no evidence that they are increasing in the three towns that have regulated supply. Those same sources add that the ministry is supporting local councils in developing their ordinances through meetings and coordination with the Directorate General for Tourist Planning, Training and Promotion.

Councils seek clarity

The Canary Islands Federation of Municipalities (FECAM), meanwhile, has said it is in talks with the regional government and parliamentary groups to introduce amendments via the bill that speeds up planning permissions, chiefly to clarify and standardise issues relating to “classified activities” – the main sticking point between local authorities and the regional executive.

No relief for renters

One of the aims of the recent legislation is to help guarantee the effectiveness of every citizen’s right to decent, suitable and affordable housing. But that objective still seems a long way off, reflects Aceysele Chacón, spokesperson for Drago Canarias on Fuerteventura. “I haven’t noticed any real improvement in rental prices or in the supply of housing available to live in. In fact, I know of several cases, even of close friends, who have left or are about to leave the island because of it: because their rent has gone up or they’ve been evicted,” she says.

Depending on which source you consult, rents in the archipelago have risen in one way or another. But the increase has been consistent across the board. Property portal Idealista calculates they have gone up by 54% since 2019. The company Alquiler Seguro estimates a 45% rise. And the Ministry of Housing, with more dated but official data, puts the increase at close to 30%.

For Chacón, the problems remain the same. The stagnation in tourist apartments, in her view, does not compare at all with the uncontrolled growth seen up to now. And she believes more than an “insufficient law” is needed for things to change in the Canary Islands. “Neither of the last two governments has acted boldly to stop this madness the archipelago is experiencing, and here we are,” she adds.

A note of caution from experts

Geographer Agustín Cocola, a member of the Territorial Analysis and Tourism Studies Research Group at the Rovira i Virgili University in Catalonia, also urges caution over the decline in holiday rentals, which is also being seen in mainland Spain. “Rather than a clear drop, what we are seeing in many cases is a certain stabilisation after years of strong growth, and that is quite normal and to be expected. In any case, this does not necessarily imply a significant reduction in pressure on the housing market,” he reasons.

Cocola concludes that tourist rentals have already structurally transformed many local markets and, even if growth slows, the accumulated volume remains very high. “Therefore, I would speak more of an adjustment phase than of a change in trend with clear effects on access to housing,” he says.

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