The counselor of Public Works, Housing, and Mobility of the Government of the Canary Islands, Pablo Rodríguez, emphasized this Tuesday the need to reinforce incentives for the promotion of free housing and, at the same time, accelerate public promotions in the archipelago. The goal of the Executive is to close 2026 with more than 7,000 completed homes and to approach 10,000 the following year.
Rodríguez delivered this message during the informative meeting of Europa Press "Canarias hacia el futuro," held at the Hotel Santa Catalina, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. In this forum, he addressed one of the most pressing challenges for the islands: access to housing, a problem of "significant magnitude," which is not "exclusive to any territory" and which in the Canary Islands presents its own "singularities."
The counselor recalled that "housing, historically, has had access problems, initially for the most vulnerable families and for young people seeking to emancipate, but today it affects the entire population to a great extent." In that context, he evoked the 35,000 homes per year that were built in the Canary Islands just before the outbreak of the financial crisis of 2008.
"After the crisis, --he continued-- production was reduced to 1,000 homes per year. And as the stock of available housing decreased, and the population increased, supply and demand became unbalanced." According to him, the autonomous community has been regaining pace in the construction of public housing, currently reaching 4,000 units per year, given that "2,000 are already being built and another 2,000 are in planning."
Along with public promotion, Rodríguez defended the need to stimulate the construction of privately initiated housing, especially considering "all those working families who cannot opt for public or protected housing and who face difficulties accessing housing, precisely because "there is none."
In this line, he referred to the measures implemented by the regional Government, including the emergency measures decree law on housing, promoted by the Canary Executive. In his opinion, these actions would already be causing "a change of trend" in the residential sector in the islands: "In 2024, housing production exceeds 4,000 homes; in 2025, 5,000, and in 2026, more than 7,000 will be exceeded."
Bureaucratic obstacles and lack of legal certainty
In addition to increasing construction, Rodríguez emphasized the urgency of bringing to market homes that today remain empty or off the rental market, many of them, he said, stalled by the "legal insecurity" arising from state regulations for property owners. "There are many homes that were on the rental market not long ago and were withdrawn precisely because of that legal insecurity, which comes from the urban leasing law, which has further harmed the lack of housing," he pointed out.
The counselor insisted that the great "milestone" set by the Government of the Canary Islands is to reach 10,000 completed homes each year in the archipelago, mainly from private initiative, in order to "balance" supply with current demand. "If we close this year exceeding 7,000 homes a year, I aspire that next year we exceed 10,000 homes a year," he stated.
Tourism, employment, and housing in the most pressured areas
When analyzing the situation of the main economic engine of the Canary Islands, tourism, Rodríguez identified one of the major bottlenecks in the sector: the difficulty of finding staff due to the high cost and scarcity of housing close to workplaces. Therefore, he advocated for incentivizing the tourism sector to also incorporate residential developments, taking advantage of the processes of renovation and construction of new establishments.
"We have to look for formulas, which I am sure exist, to incentivize the tourism sector to also build homes. In the south of the islands, where most of the hotels are, is where the square meter and housing are much more expensive. This situation means that all hotel workers cannot live nearby, neither close nor within 30 minutes of the hotels," he explained.
Road Agreement and Green Strategy
In relation to the Green Strategy of the Ministry of Public Works, Mobility, and Housing, aimed at advancing towards a more sustainable and efficient model in the archipelago, Rodríguez addressed the importance of extending and increasing the resources of the Canary Islands-State Road Agreement, currently endowed with more than 1.4 billion euros.
"There is no autonomous community in the entire State that invests as much in roads as we do. And that is supported by the fact that we do not have state-interest roads, so the Ministry does not invest a dime in the roads on the islands," he explained.
The regional official reiterated the need to extend the validity of the third Roads Agreement, signed with the State in 2018, to add an additional 1 billion euros and thus reach 2.4 billion euros, intended to complete the strategic actions planned on the main roads of the archipelago.
As an example of the impact of these investments, he cited the "largest" work recently awarded in Fuerteventura, with a budget of 215 million euros. It is a new highway that will connect with the first tunnel on the island, between Pozo Negro, in the southern area, and the airport.