Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.
The president of the Canary Islands government, Fernando Clavijo, has swapped the term “tensioned zones”, set out in Spain’s national housing law, for “saturated zones” — his preferred way of referring to neighbourhoods such as Las Canteras, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, one of the most representative examples of property purchases by foreigners and of touristification.
Comments during an interview with Canarias7
The Canary Islands leader made the remark this Sunday in an interview published in Canarias7, in which he touched only briefly on the housing problem — an issue he does not include among the areas his government has improved during a legislative term now nearing its end. “We need to act on supply and demand; hence the battle to limit purchases by foreigners,” Clavijo argues when the journalist reminds him that the housing problem remains unresolved.
But when challenged over the populist nature of that measure and the reluctance of the European Union, the Canary Islands president responds that it has been done in Berlin, Amsterdam and Denmark, before going on to cite the example of Las Canteras beach: “The idea is that if someone buys a home in a tensioned zone, such as Las Canteras, they can only keep it as their usual residence.”
No tensioned zones declared in the islands
The catch, however, is that no tensioned zones exist in the Canary Islands precisely because the Canary Coalition government and the Partido Popular have refused to recognise them for councils such as Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where that beach is located. That is why Clavijo then reaches for another term: “They will be saturated zones. It doesn’t matter what they’re called, but where a mayor has difficulties, we want people to be obliged to reside there.”
He clarifies this further in response to the journalist’s questions. Clavijo wraps up the housing issue by stating that when he returned to the presidency in 2003, fewer than 1,000 homes a year were being built in the Canary Islands, whereas this year will close with 6,000 public and private units, despite staff shortages and the problem of rising material costs.
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