After almost three years of negotiations, the Government of the Canary Islands confirmed last year to the Yaiza City Council the plot of 42,253 square meters in the partial plan of Montaña Roja ceded by the council to build 126 social rental homes.
Regarding the time elapsed, the mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, explained in a recent interview with Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero almost another two years must be added: “For a public administration to be able to build, everything has to go to tender, first the project, then the work... We are talking about almost two years before those houses can be finished".
To accelerate access to protected housing in the south of Lanzarote, the Yaiza City Council has proposed to the Government of the Canary Islands that it buy finished or almost finished houses. “There is a private development in Montaña Roja in five phases. The first, of 32 homes, is finished and sold, and the second, which will be similar, is about to be completed. The remaining three phases total more than 200 homes”, Noda specifies.
“We have proposed that these homes be purchased and that they be offered, I'm not saying as social rentals, because that is always more restrictive, but with a moderate or cheap rent”, he explains.
For them to be official protection homes, Noda explains that first “the Housing Department has to give the certification that it meets the requirements and agree on the final price”. Once that happens, the City Council can give the building permit. Being a private development, the process “can be faster when assigning companies”.
Noda clarifies that the public company Visocan has to put it out to tender, “but right now here in Lanzarote there is no other area where this type of housing is being built”, he adds.
“In addition, we are looking at other plots for those 100 more homes that we would have left within the state Housing Plan, which we have guaranteed, there are 226 in total”, he explains.
