The housing crisis that is choking the Canary Islands and has led to a call for a general strike throughout the country for this November 11 has many facets. Among them, the increase in alleged real estate scams.
Diego González Sáez saw his house off-plan and paid a 15,590 euro deposit after signing a purchase agreement in January 2024. He signed that commercial agreement with the two companies responsible for the construction of about thirty homes on a plot located in the Argana neighborhood, in Arrecife.
His house would be number seventeen in this ongoing real estate development on a plot located between Martínez Montañez street and Jesús Soto Morales street. Or at least, that was the purchase commitment made.
The house, a ground floor with three bedrooms, a living-dining room, a kitchen, a utility room, a bathroom, a toilet, a garage space, and a storage room, was then valued at 155,900 euros. In addition to the initial payment of 15,590 euros. González also purchased an extra garage space, valued at 8,000 euros, and paid half in advance, 4,000.
Although the contract states that the home was to be delivered on December 31, 2025, and that upon signing the deed he was to pay the remaining 140,310 euros, the buyer has not yet received it and the developer now refuses to sell it to him.
"During these years, they have made excuses for us to get information on how the work is progressing," says Diego González during a conversation with *La Voz*. However, the developers never told him they regretted selling him the home until now.
"When we went to appraise the house, he says he doesn't want to sell it," he assures. This citizen has encountered the developers' refusal when the development already had "all the permits" and the house was "ready for delivery."
Facing the possibility of being left on the street with his wife and children, González has filed a lawsuit against the two companies that signed the property purchase agreement and has requested the forced execution of that contract.
González believes that the reasons why the developers have decided not to comply with the purchase agreement are economic. "It seems that they have done the same thing to other people," he states. "That building has been sold for months and suddenly, apartments from that development are appearing on the real estate agency's website," he adds.
The purchase agreement also stipulated that if the developers failed to fulfill their obligation to grant the buyer the public deed, the buyer could resort to judicial or extrajudicial channels to demand that the contract be fulfilled.
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