The Cabildo plenary session has unanimously approved a motion presented by Lanzarote en Pie - Sí Podemos to study by zones the impact of vacation rentals in Lanzarote and La Graciosa and thus "to have accurate and real data that helps to make the pertinent decisions to defuse the residential rental market."
According to the formation, "access to housing under a rental regime is practically impossible for most of the citizens of Lanzarote and La Graciosa due to the increase in prices suffered in the last five years." For the confluence, "this situation hinders the exercise of a right as basic as having a housing unit appropriate to each case." They therefore consider it urgent to introduce changes that provide efficient solutions to the housing problem once and for all.
During the defense of the motion - unanimously approved in the plenary session held this Friday at the headquarters of the Island Council - the spokesperson for Lanzarote en Pie - Sí Podemos recalled that "vacation rentals strain the residential rental market, but also help to redistribute the wealth generated by the tourism sector among ordinary people." For this reason, Myriam Barros considers it "urgent and necessary" to study in depth the impact of this phenomenon on the islands of Lanzarote and La Graciosa to find out in which areas the impact is negative and in which areas it can help working families to obtain income to supplement their income.
The agreement reached by the plenary of the corporation places special emphasis on knowing how many of these vacation homes are owned by investment funds and large companies. "The purpose of this motion is to defend the correct distribution of tourism income so that it also reaches families and is not limited to feeding the accounts of large speculators," added Barros.
Census of vacation and empty homes
In addition to knowing the number and location of vacation homes, as well as their effects on the local economy, the confluence also sees the need to know the number of empty homes to study their incorporation into the social housing stock.
"In Lanzarote there are countless uninhabited houses and apartments that could fulfill an important role in social rental," recalls the councilor. "The Cabildo must take very seriously the housing problem that we are suffering and develop housing recovery plans for social rental, since we are in a critical situation that especially affects the most vulnerable families."
