2023-10-21 12:58:36
The Canary Islands will have a law in force on June 30 that will limit the development of vacation homes. That is the date marked on the general director of Tourism Planning, Training and Promotion of the Government of the Canary IslandsMiguel Ángel Rodríguez. “It is necessary and timely,” he maintains about the convenience of legislating tourist rentals. Behind the push for the standard lies the preservation of the right to housing, protecting the competitiveness of the sector or avoiding gentrification, among other objectives.
These higher-ranking principles, constitutional in many cases, have led him to opt for transversality when defining the general objectives and principles that will govern the preparation of the bill. On its agenda, the Governing Council plans to approve on Monday the opportunity report that will defend the Minister of Tourism and Employment, Jessica de León.
It will be the first step. From there and for a month citizens They will have a space enabled on the department’s website in which to make their contributions. “We are not for or against anything or anyone, what we have to do now is listen to the citizens,” explains the general director.
Three out of every ten residential properties in La Oliva are dedicated to accommodation activity
The latest count by the National Institute of Statistics figures at 42,651 tourist homes that exist in the Archipelago. They represent 4.10% of the entire real estate stock, the second highest rate in the country. Greater pressure is observed if the focus is placed on a municipality like La Oliva, where three out of every ten houses are dedicated to accommodation activity.
Look for solutions
Numbers like these serve Miguel Ángel Rodríguez to explain the need to address the problem. “We have to articulate possible solutions, regulatory or not. What is no longer possible is to remain idly by and not make a move, we need a norm, and with the force of law”, points out.
In his opinion, the impacts caused by the proliferation of vacation homes cannot be addressed with the current “minimum regulation”. The activity on the Islands finds its legal basis in a 2015 regulation that was later cut by a Supreme Court ruling in 2018.
“It is no longer possible to sit idly by and not make a move”
General Director of Planning, Training and Tourism Promotion of the Government of the Canary Islands
Only in the Balearic Islands (4.33%) is the pressure higher than in the Canary Islands. The big difference is that in the Mediterranean archipelago “there are five laws” in force for this area. “If we do nothing here, constitutional rights such as having decent housing will continue to be affected,” highlights the general director of Tourism Planning, Training and Promotion.
Teachers from one island who have to move to another and cannot find a house to rent, landlords who are invited to leave their lifelong homes within a gentrification process that ends up laminating the identity of the neighborhoods… Phenomena of various kinds that encourage the elaboration of a law of a “transversal” nature, as highlighted by the member of Counselor Jessica de León’s team.
Sustainability, conciliation and gentrification
“We talk about issues such as sustainability itself, because If local citizens are expelled to the periphery, there are more commuting movements and more emissions, in addition to affecting conciliation,” explains Rodríguez.
Only the councils of Fuerteventura and La Gomera abstained when the preparation of this law was proposed to the Commission for the Study of Regulatory Needs in the Tourism Area. There were no votes against. It is only the first step for a profound renewal of the regulatory block – this was unanimously approved – that governs the main activity of the Canary Islands economy.
First stone for the approval of a new legislative framework for tourism
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The regulation of camping and caravanning, the retouching of the incentives included in the modernization rules and a general tourism law – the current one is from 1995 – will follow that of the tourist use of the homes.
To explain the reason for addressing the latter, we have programmed briefings: October 27, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., at the Lanzarote Town Hall and from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Insular Youth Center in Puerto del Rosario; October 31, in the assembly hall of the Presidency of the Government of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.), and on November 2 (10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.), at the Elder Museum in the capital of Gran Canaria.
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