Everything indicates that this Wednesday, November 12, the Law on Sustainable Regulation of Tourist Use of Housing will be voted on in the Plenary Session of the Parliament of the Canary Islands.
The Canary Islands Association of Holiday Rentals (ASCAV) warns that "if the amendments *in voce* presented by the opposition groups are not taken into consideration, it will mean the practical eradication of holiday homes in the hands of thousands of private owners in the archipelago".
ASCAV denounces that the mortal "Achilles' heel" of holiday rentals in the Canary Islands is none other than the impossibility of complying with the municipal requirement of Classified Activities.
The Law on Classified Activities was approved in 2011 and did not include holiday homes, whose Decree 113 was approved in 2015. Since then, ASCAV has been unsuccessfully requesting the modification of the 2011 Law.
ASCAV warns that CC and PP intend to "steamroll" and approve the new law "without consensus with the only association representing the sector, the business employers' association of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the professionals, practically all sectors that benefit from the activity, the opposition parties, society, and of course, the thousands and thousands of Canary families dedicated to vacation rentals".
"The scandalous thing is that the regional government demonizes vacation rentals in the Canary Islands in its explanatory memorandum to justify the Law (in more than 40 pages) and, at the state level, praises their benefits," ASCAV highlights.
"The regional government demonizes vacation rentals in the Canary Islands, while at the state level it praises their benefits”
In the Seville Declaration signed by thirteen Autonomous Communities, including the Canary Islands, it is literally stated: "We affirm that the housing access crisis is a structural problem unrelated to tourism and caused by the failure of the State Housing Law and various factors that require decisive action based on a correct diagnosis of the problem and not on the continuous search for culprits".
The statement elaborated: "Tourist Use Housing (VUT), when properly regulated by the competent regional authority, is a type of accommodation that contributes to the revitalization of urban centers and complements our offering, not the cause of inequality or housing access problems affecting the entire country."
"Quite the opposite of what is being applied in the islands," explains ASCAV, "where the executive points to **short-term rentals as the culprit** and responsible for inequality and difficulties in accessing housing when, **at a national level, the opposite is stated."
The Association recalls that "exhaustive reports from the College of Economists of Las Palmas, the Economic and Social Council, as well as several highly reputable jurists, submitted to the Ministry of Tourism and Employment, rightly support what the Canarian Association of Vacation Rentals ASCAV has been insistently defending, demonstrating, and claiming".
"Catastrophic consequences"
If the Law is approved as it is written and the presented amendments are not taken into account, ASCAV announces that "the consequences will be catastrophic for thousands and thousands of Canary Islander and resident families who own a vacation home, as well as for all the management and intermediary companies involved."
"If the Government finally votes on the Law as it is, tourism will cease to be for all Canary Islanders and will remain in the hands of a few, the usual ones," he adds."It will mean more poverty, more precariousness, and will expel thousands of Canary families from the tourism business, knowing that this Law will not generate more residential housing for Canarians. It will be an economic and social catastrophe," he continues.
ASCAV recalls that 67% of these vacation homes were never and will never be residential rentals, as they are located in residentialized tourist complexes (according to a report by the College of Economists of Las Palmas).
Furthermore, it explains that the vast majority of registered tourist rentals are in tourist municipalities, not residential ones, so they do not take away housing from residents
The Canary Islands Association of Holiday Rentals also highlights "the inability to put on the market the more than 211,000 vacant homes that exist in the Canary Islands".
"More than 2 billion will disappear"
ASCAV highlights as "especially scandalous" a recent regional government project "funded with more than 8 million euros to put affordable residential rental housing on the market, with the result of achieving only 1 property. In other words, an unprecedented waste of public money".
The Association considers that the “sole objective of this Law can only be to bend to the will of large holders and investment funds against the interests and well-being of many families”.
ASCAV wonders why there is no desire to differentiate and protect small VV owners and considers the answer to be obvious: to leave "sharks and anchovies in the same fishbowl."ASCAV hopes and wishes that "in the last minute of added time and in the Plenary Session of Parliament, the Government shows a minimum of sensitivity towards the future of thousands and thousands of owners of holiday homes and all the professionals or companies that manage them, who otherwise and without a doubt, will be condemned to disappear, swelling the unemployment lists".ASCAV warns that the consequences will not only be "devastating for private owners and the companies that manage them, but for society as a whole."
“More than 2 billion in direct impact generated and invoiced in the Canary Islands by the vacation rental sector will disappear, causing a budgetary hole in terms of taxes, IGIC, and the regional income tax bracket,” which is equivalent to more money than the current budget allocation for housing and mobility in the 2026 budget.
ASCAV also highlights that "accommodation prices will rise even further for the middle classes, Canary Island families, or young people as a result of the disappearance of vacation rentals."
