The president of the Association of Developers and Builders of the province of Las Palmas, María Salud Gil, is focused on ensuring that the Decree of urgent measures regarding housing bears fruit and that the homes that citizens need can be built in the archipelago.
A Decree that includes many of the measures that the employers' association had been demanding for years. In an interview with Ekonomus, she explains the reasons that, in her opinion, have led the Canary Islands to an unprecedented lack of housing and explains in detail the measures that are on the table to face this challenge.
- How does the decree of urgent measures facilitate the construction of protected housing?
The Decree establishes a regulatory framework above planning, aimed at increasing the availability of land and buildings for housing.
The Decree does not make the promotion of public housing profitable for developers to the extent that a free promotion is. For this reason, we have proposed that, since the profit margin is very short, it be complemented with the tax benefit through the Canary Islands Investment Reserve (RIC).
- Does the increase in the basic module to build protected housing not favor builders?
The basic module is a reference price, it is not that they pay us that. And it has indeed increased, from 975 euros per square meter to 1,905 euros in Gran Canaria and Tenerife, and to 2,133 in Lanzarote and other non-capital islands.
However, while the basic module increases, the usable area by which it can be multiplied is reduced from 85% to 73%. In addition, a series of coefficients are lowered, which makes business margins very short. It is not true, as some say, that we are going to make a killing.
"There will be no construction on rustic land"
- How does the Decree increase the availability of land?
The Decree removes the planning handcuffs from the town councils. It establishes that they can use endowment land (land that urban planning allocates to public use) to build homes and allows private initiative to build homes on land intended for equipment.
It also establishes the right of surface, whereby any town council, the ICAVI or VISOCAN itself, can tender the construction of protected rental housing on public land, but built by private initiative with the RIC. In addition, it allows the transformation of premises and office buildings into housing.
- Is it true that it allows increasing the height of buildings?
It allows increasing the buildability in buildings as long as 50% of the homes that are created are protected and as long as you can make the height at the same level as the adjoining buildings. It also allows VISOCAN to acquire buildings that are now unfinished and that are completed through a public tender.
"The Preliminary Draft Law on Tourist Rental breaks fundamental rights and borders on unconstitutionality. There is a manifest defenselessness on the part of the governed. The economic impact has not been measured"
- Are the fears that the decree opens the door to building on rustic land well-founded?
There will be no construction on rustic land. When the Land Law changed, the owners of developable land, within urban areas, were told that they had two years to adapt to the law, and if they did not adapt, that land would become common rustic land, which is a different figure.
The Decree Law now gives those owners one year to get out of that non-compliance and adapt to the regulations.
- What is the situation in Lanzarote?
Lanzarote has a different problem. In the field of planning there is a lot of judicialization. From my perspective, there is no synchronization of wills to carry out certain issues.
We are going to hold a public event with the island president so that there are synergies between administrations without ideological biases or prejudices. There are many people who cannot go to work in Lanzarote, where doctors and other professionals are needed, because there are no homes.
Lanzarote cannot be left behind, it needs much more than any other island, even Fuerteventura, specific attention in terms of Housing.
"If anyone is to blame for the lack of homes on the market to buy at affordable prices or in rentals, it is the Public Administrations"
- What has caused the lack of housing in Lanzarote? Has it been vacation homes?
Vacation homes are not at all responsible for the lack of housing availability on the market.
The responsible party is a Housing Law (state) that is absolutely invasive of the rights of private property initiative, which has inflated rents because 30% of homes have left conventional rentals. There is a constant invitation in this country to squatting and impunity for squatters. There is an Urban Leasing Law that is absolutely insecure from a legal point of view.
- What do you think of the preliminary draft Law on Tourist Rental that ASCAV denounces as mortally wounding the sector?
The preliminary draft starts from a very big fundamental error, which is to blame vacation homes for the housing problems that exist in the Canary Islands. Starting from that thesis, the entire preliminary draft is wrong.
I believe it is a disguised moratorium, it breaks fundamental rights and borders on unconstitutionality. There is a manifest defenselessness on the part of the governed. The economic impact of this preliminary draft has not been measured. It does not include a transitional regime that is safe.
There are a lot of small owners who were invited to buy apartments many years ago, they bought them and now they have them rented out. They live off that, there are people who supplement their pension like that.
"Neither ecotax nor increase in the IGIC. They already have us well squeezed with taxes for them to use them properly."
- What is the cause of the housing emergency?
If anyone is to blame for the lack of homes on the market to buy at affordable prices or in rentals, it is the Public Administrations, town councils and the Government of the Canary Islands. All those who have governed.
In 2007 we built 30,000 homes and in 2023, 2,000 were built. The production of free housing has been reduced by 88% and the production of protected housing has been reduced by 99%. Vacation homes are barely 4% of the total number of homes.
- Is an ecotax or raising the IGIC necessary to improve public services?
Neither one thing nor the other. What public services have to do is invest in infrastructure. The services are not good because they are neither conserved nor maintained properly. Let them do their homework.
They already have us well squeezed with taxes for them to use them properly.
- How is the management of European funds to rehabilitate homes in terms of energy efficiency going?
Right now we are in a situation of absolute blockage by the ICAVI in the resolution of subsidies. We managed to have projects presented so that more than 3,000 homes would be rehabilitated with almost 80% reduction in energy consumption.
We are very, very concerned because not only do they have to be spent, but they also have to be justified before June 2026. Only 10% of the funds have been executed.
"We are talking with Social Welfare and with the Government Delegation to be able to train migrants, who are almost kidnapped in the Canary Islands"
- What is being done to address the labor problem in the construction sector?
Through the Labor Foundation of Construction we train between 5 and 6,000 workers a year, of which about 4,000 join the construction sector. The rest find employment in businesses such as Leroy Merlín, where they are highly appreciated for their knowledge of construction.
We only cover 70-75% of the labor we need, which impacts the company's production because it cannot bid for tenders or cannot finish the works on time and has to pay penalties. It means losing around 10% of turnover.
- What else can be done to solve this issue?
We are working with the government for a pilot and massive construction training action. We have almost 15,000 unemployed registered in the Canarian Employment Service who do not join the market because there are only a thousand who have a professional certification.
We have asked the Ministry of Education to be able to train and examine these people to be able to certify their skills and be able to incorporate them.
- Is it true that they are going to try to get migrants in an irregular situation in the Canary Islands to be able to work in the sector?
We are talking with Social Welfare and with the Government Delegation. There are many migrants who are almost kidnapped in the Canary Islands and are in a legal situation that only allows them to be in a reception center.
We want to give them the opportunity, to those who want, to be trained. Now it is not possible because they have neither residence nor work permit. For this, it would be necessary to manage a permit to train through the Government Delegation. It is something that Minister Escrivá already proposed at the national level.
