New rents in the Canary Islands rise much more than salaries, denounces CCOO with data

CCOO Canarias warns that access to housing has become a real social emergency for the archipelago's workers. The latest data from the Housing Price Index for Rent (IPVA) show that new rental contracts continue to grow at a rate much higher than wages, making access to decent housing increasingly difficult and exacerbating social and territorial inequalities.

According to the study prepared by the CCOO Confederal Economic Cabinet, between 2015 and 2024, the price of new rental contracts in the Canary Islands increased by 37.5%, while existing contracts rose by 22.8%. In the same period, the average wage grew by 24.5%.

This data reflects a worrying reality: new rentals have increased by 13 percentage points more than wages, placing the Canary Islands among the autonomous communities where workers have lost the most purchasing power in the rental market.

Furthermore, the report states that the largest increases occur when a contract ends and a new one is signed. It is at that moment when working families face the biggest price "jumps," a situation that particularly affects those who need to become independent, move house, or renew their lease.

For CCOO Canarias, this trend shows that the housing market is progressively pushing an increasing portion of the working population out of the possibility of accessing adequate housing without compromising an excessive proportion of their income.

"The housing problem no longer affects only the most vulnerable groups. More and more employed workers are having difficulty finding affordable housing on the islands," CCOO Canarias points out.

The pressure of rent is worsening in the most strained areas

The union warns that this situation is particularly serious in the urban and tourist areas of the archipelago, where the pressure of residential demand coexists with an insufficient supply of affordable housing and the expansion of other residential and tourist uses that reduce the availability of habitual housing.

This reality is making it difficult for young people to become independent, increasing forced displacement to areas further from employment centers, and raising the risk of residential exclusion for numerous working families.

Faced with this situation, CCOO calls for decisive action from all public administrations to substantially increase the supply of affordable housing.

Among the proposed measures, the creation of the Public Investment Fund for Affordable Housing (FIVA) stands out, promoted by CCOO to mobilize private savings, institutional investment, and public resources for the construction and acquisition of permanent social housing.

The objective of FIVA is to promote the creation of 50,000 affordable homes per year, reaching two million public and affordable homes over the next decade. These homes would have rents between 7 and 11 euros per square meter, approximately 30% lower than current market prices.

Likewise, CCOO advocates for the mobilization of public land for social housing, the permanent maintenance of the protection of housing financed with public resources, and the strengthening of the public rental stock as a fundamental instrument to guarantee the right to housing.