The fund Coral Homes SL, which has more than 35,000 properties throughout the country, asked the Yaiza City Council to assess the risk of collapse in the unfinished houses on plot 146 of the Pechiguera Lighthouse, where around 60 families live, most of whom work in the hotels of the tourist town.
Coral Homes SL is made up of CaixaBank and the American investment fund Lone Star. According to the documentation that La Voz has had access to, this real estate company urged the southern council to carry out a technical report that would analyze the structural state of the houses, looking for "damages and weaknesses" in the construction.
In a general request, it also asked the council to investigate the "potential risks" of collapse for the people who live in the houses and the dangers "in the short and long term." Among the demands of the property, it urged the City Council to recommend "immediate measures" to secure these properties, including "the immediate eviction requirement."
Initially, this entity criminally denounced the occupants of the 90 unfinished houses. However, the Court of Instruction rejected its claims and highlighted that criminal protection cannot reach "who has not shown any interest in their property for such a significantly long time."
At that point, the Court of Arrecife closed the case for usurpation and urged the property to begin a civil eviction procedure. The fund has begun a new process, this time through civil means, to evict the occupants and has asked the judicial body as a precautionary measure the eviction of the families who live in the skeletons.
This work on Austria Street was abandoned by the real estate company Inversur Lanzarote SL almost 20 years ago. The construction of these houses was paralyzed in 2006 as it was planned in the surroundings of the Pechiguera Lighthouse, a 19th-century lighthouse declared as an Asset of Cultural Interest. The promoting company tried to eliminate the protection measures of this element and continue with the works, but it did not succeed. After that, it abandoned the farm and the half-finished houses.
For almost 20 years, this work has become one of the concrete skeletons on the island of Lanzarote. Now, the lack of housing has led many families to adapt them to live in them, waiting to get an affordable rent. According to data offered in March 2024 by the occupants, around 40 minors live on the property.
