Spain’s Canary Islands Consider Short-Term Holiday Lets Limitation
Spain News
Published: 03 October 2023 16:25 CET
The Regional Ministry of Tourism and Employment for the Canary Islands is poised to draft and potentially enact legislation designed to govern tourist rentals and establish a legal framework for the holiday accommodation sector within the distant Atlantic archipelago.
Jéssica de León, the minister responsible for tourism, detailed in the regional parliament that this initiative aims to address not only aspects of the region's tourism model but also housing, land use planning, environmental considerations, and consumer protection.
De León provided insight into the current state of holiday rental regulations within the islands, emphasising the substantial growth in supply in recent years. Holiday rental properties now constitute a remarkable 33 percent of the available accommodations in the Canary Islands, comprising over 42,000 residences and 179,000 beds, according to 2023 data from the National Statistics Institute (INE). This places the Canary Islands as the fourth region in Spain in terms of holiday units, following Andalusia, Valencia, and Catalonia. In terms of percentages, the islands rank even higher.
De León pointed out, "These figures make the Canary Islands the second autonomous community with the highest percentage of tourist housing in Spain, only behind the Balearic Islands," She expressed concern about the rapid growth in municipalities like La Oliva (Fuerteventura) or Yaiza (Lanzarote), where 30.78 percent and 17.68 percent of homes are used for tourism, respectively.
The surge in holiday rentals has strained the residential property market and priced out many local residents who struggle to find affordable long-term rental housing. Over the past decade, rents have surged by 86 percent, despite the fact that residents of the Canary Islands have the lowest wages in Spain, alongside those in Extremadura.
“Our sustainability, the protection of urban living, the right to decent housing, the quality of life of citizens and employment in the tourism sector are all at stake and we can no longer look the other way,” concluded De León.
Technically, the archipelago's holiday rentals are governed by an eight-year-old law (Decree 113/2015). However, De León argued that these regulations have a "very limited" scope, and their effectiveness has been eroded by subsequent legal rulings. The existing regulations lack limitations on the number of holiday rentals, an official registry of such properties, or any categorisation criteria.
Furthermore, De León contended that the 2015 decree did not account for any form of planning, whether tourism, urban, or territorial. The conditions it imposed were deemed "minimal." She emphasised, "They were useful at the time, but in 2023 they have become obsolete and do not respond to the demands of a society that demands changes and defends a tourism model that moves increasingly towards sustainability".
As a result, new legislation appears highly likely to supersede the holiday rental decree and will likely encompass a broader scope by regulating the use of housing for tourism purposes throughout the islands. These regulations would position the Canary Islands as the second region in Spain to enforce tourist accommodation regulations through legislation, following the example of the Balearic Islands.
The Canary archipelago is home to approximately 2 million residents, primarily concentrated on the two largest islands, Tenerife and Gran Canaria. These islands are among the most densely populated areas in Spain, and with limited available land and a significant portion of homes in the region owned by foreigners, property prices remain high, both for rent and purchase, while housing supply remains scarce.
Sources
https://www.thelocal.es/20231003/spains-canaries-consider-limiting-short-term-holiday-lets
