The Canary Islands built 274,736 homes between 2001 and 2023, but only 12,547 were officially protected. In other words, so far this century the archipelago has only increased its social housing stock by 4.6%. This is reflected in the Canary Islands Housing and Land Observatory.
The Canary Islands is the autonomous community that has invested the least in social housing in recent decades. From the eighties to 2023, the Atlantic archipelago suffered a population increase of 837,432 people, the fifth highest figure in the country, and only behind regions such as Andalusia, Madrid, Valencia and Catalonia.
In contrast, while Canarian households have grown to 494,391 in these 44 years, 513,960 homes were built, more than necessary to cover population growth, but only 55,360 (10.7%) have been officially protected, so the rest have entered directly into the free market. The research highlights that "a part of the homes built in our country have been destined for second homes or vacation use." Which explains, in part, the lack of affordable housing on the islands.
Added to this is one of the mistakes made by Spanish public institutions: building social housing for sale and not for rent. These public homes eventually "acquire the condition of free homes in the market, without being subject to any price limit and thus losing the social character with which they were promoted," the document adds. For example, between 2005 and 2023, 12,922 protected homes were registered in the Canary Islands, of which more than half (64.8%) were given under a property regime, 30% for rent and a negligible percentage (4.8%) for self-promotion.
Likewise, between 2019 and 2023, the Canary Islands "has seen reduced" its percentage of social housing under a lease regime by 16%. Meanwhile, in this period it incorporated 4,940 homes into the rental regime with option to buy.
Currently, the archipelago does not have a housing stock available for emergency situations, a reality that has been seen in the mass evictions of abandoned homes in Lanzarote. In 2023 there was no housing in the archipelago that was available for "immediate delivery."
Among the worst public housing records in the country
With a still incipient democracy, Spain experienced in the eighties a boom in the construction of social housing, the largest of the last 44 years. However, while ten autonomous communities and Ceuta and Melilla built more protected housing than free housing, with public promotion being greater than 50%, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands registered the worst increases in the country, with 21.1% and 16.2%, respectively.
In contrast, in some cases, such as Extremadura, Asturias, Navarra and Aragon, the creation of social housing occurred above 70% of the total during that decade. The situation improved slightly in the 90s, where the archipelago built 19,181 social homes, of the 126,018 that ended in those years, that is, 15.2% of the total.
In the first decade of the 21st century, 246,739 homes were completed, while of these, only 10,167 were social (4.1% of the total). Between 2011 and 2020, in the shadow of the economic crisis and the bursting of the real estate bubble, 19,305 houses were built, the lowest figure in the series, of which 2,172 (11.3%) were social. Meanwhile, in the last three years analyzed, between 2021 and 2023, 7,692 houses have been built, 208 protected (2.7%).
Currently, Spain and the Canary Islands are experiencing "a situation of historical minimums" in the promotion of public housing.
One of the countries with the worst public housing ratios
This census, prepared from different sources, shows that Spain has one of the eight worst ratios of social housing for rent per hundred main homes (it has three protected homes per hundred homes) and is also at the tail end in the number of social homes per hundred inhabitants (one per hundred residents). Meanwhile, the Netherlands has the highest figure in Europe, with 29 public homes per hundred main homes, and eleven social homes per hundred inhabitants.
Likewise, the country has one of the largest free housing stocks in Europe, only behind Germany, France or Italy.
