Drago Canarias warns of an increase in evictions on the island of Lanzarote during the first quarter of 2025. As explained by the spokesperson for Drago Canarias in Lanzarote, Rafa Jiménez, "mortgage foreclosures increased by 7.7% last year in the Canary Islands, according to the National Institute of Statistics, and so far this year new cases of evictions of various types continue to emerge in Lanzarote, the situation is truly dramatic."
Currently, the island's real estate market is going through its worst moment. The price per square meter of housing for sale in Lanzarote exceeded 3,000 euros for the first time in history and recently the island exceeded 10,000 vacation rental accommodations, as reported by La Voz, a situation that is "expelling the 'conejera' population from their own land," Jiménez maintains.
In this sense, Jiménez pointed out that "it is urgent to intervene in the housing market because we are the island that is suffering the most from the real estate crisis in the archipelago," to which he added that "the Canary Islands is a limited, fragmented and coveted territory, so we need legal tools different from the rest of the State and even the European Union."
Regarding the reality of evictions in Lanzarote, Jiménez related that "the most striking case is that of a family that rents in Arrecife, with three minors in their care, in which both parents have permanent employment contracts and whose landlord decided not to continue renting the apartment to them" and explained that "this family will be on the street because they cannot find available accommodation on the island, not even those people with regular income are able to access a home." Jiménez exemplified about the story of a couple who are desperately looking for a housing alternative in the capital of Lanzarote.
However, the list of eviction cases is much broader and includes very diverse typologies. According to the spokesperson for Drago Canarias in Lanzarote, "last March we learned of the case of 128 families who are going to be evicted from an abandoned hotel in Costa Teguise to build a four-star hotel complex" and added that "in February there was also the case of the 20 families in the San Francisco Javier neighborhood, in Arrecife, which fortunately was stopped, although only temporarily."
"I also found the eviction in Playa Blanca especially unfair, almost a hundred people on the street, including people with disabilities, an oncology patient and pregnant women, from a housing skeleton that had been abandoned for 15 years and that the residents themselves rehabilitated" and emphasized that "later, the Provincial Court of Las Palmas overruled the eviction, which had been carried out as a precautionary measure, but it was already too late for the neighbors to return to their homes."
On the other hand, Jiménez took the opportunity to point out the worrying data provided by the General Council of the Judiciary, and pointed out that "in our archipelago there are 4.77 evictions per day, speculation with something as essential as housing is leading us to abandon and socially isolate almost five people a day in the Canary Islands, our people cannot afford that."
