The Court of First Instance number 3 of Arrecife has ordered the eviction of a family with four children, three of them minors, from a house in Argana Alta, in Arrecife. The date of the eviction will take place, if not postponed, this Friday, April 4. This family bought their house in the most populated neighborhood of the capital of Lanzarote in 2004, then in 2007 they moved to the place and have lived there ever since.
The problems to face the payment of the property, added to the "banking deceptions" that the family claims to have suffered, forced them to stop paying part of the mortgage payments for a decade. In addition, this family explains that although they tried to reach an agreement with the bank to be able to pay in installments more adapted to their economic reality, the entity rejected the initiative. Then, in 2022, their bank sold the property to Funcalata Servicios y Gestiones SL, a real estate investment fund that buys occupied properties, which are usually below market price, to then renovate and rent or sell them at a higher price.
"We have the money, we lack the housing," says the mother of the family, who prefers to remain anonymous, during an interview with La Voz. This woman narrates that for a year, since she received the first eviction date, she has been searching day and night on platforms and real estate agencies for other housing alternatives, but has not been successful. "When we get something, you call and say it's for six people and they tell us 'no, we don't rent for more than three'," she explains. In addition, she criticizes that on many occasions a payroll is required that is more than triple the price of the rent.
This family, which has already knocked on all the doors of local institutions, including the Arrecife City Council, and different non-profit associations, states that it has not yet been lucky. "If not, let them kill me and take me out dead, because I don't know where I'm going to go with my children."
The price of housing in Lanzarote has reached historical highs and has become one of the main problems for residents on the island. Thus, the island of volcanoes has the most expensive rental prices in the Canary Islands, according to the draft of the Island Plan for Territorial Planning of Lanzarote to which La Voz has had access. This reality has led to an increase in the number of people living in motorhomes or in their cars, to the creation of neighborhoods that grow in old concrete skeletons and to the gentrification of cities due to the rise of vacation homes.