The Lanzarote Business Confederation (CEL) welcomes the approval, in Congress, of a new tax incentive that will allow companies to apply discounts when paying taxes on their profits if they invest in the construction or rehabilitation of homes for rent in the Canary Islands.
The president of the Lanzarote Business Confederation (CEL), Beatriz Salazar, warmly received this modification of the regulations of the Reserve for Investments in the Canary Islands (RIC) which "opens the door to channeling private resources towards one of the most urgent social priorities of the Archipelago, and especially of Lanzarote, such as access to affordable housing."
Salazar recalls that from the CEL "we have insisted on this need and we have made it known to institutions and private companies, given that in the last decade the urgency of carrying out initiatives that increase the supply of housing at affordable prices in the islands has become evident and this legislative step represents a significant opportunity to respond to that urgency."
The president of the Lanzarote business association insists that the lack of affordable housing "has become one of the main obstacles to the growth of the business fabric on the island," and emphasizes that "there are many companies that are forced to slow down their expansion by not finding workers, because they cannot access housing near their workplaces."
Therefore, she believes that this measure could become "a key instrument to reactivate housing promotion in islands such as Lanzarote, where the scarcity of supply and sustained price increases seriously hinder business development and talent acquisition."
However, Salazar warns that it will be essential to guarantee a responsible and rigorous use of the new framework, stressing that "there must be exhaustive control to ensure that homes built with RIC funds are used for conventional rentals, avoiding other uses, such as vacation rentals."
"This modification of the RIC is, without a doubt, an important step in the right direction, but its effectiveness will depend on the control of its application and that it is truly focused on affordable rental for residents," she adds.
Salazar also denounces the paradox that Lanzarote is experiencing, where "there are more than 20,000 empty homes, but not available for habitual rental, which makes it even more urgent to offer legal guarantees and incentives to owners to put their properties on the residential rental market."
Finally, the CEL calls for streamlining urban planning procedures, reducing bureaucracy and promoting a stable and reliable framework for investors, which guarantees the legal security of this type of initiative and facilitates its materialization in the short and medium term.
