The PSOE of Lanzarote denounces that the island has suffered an uncontrolled growth of tourist homes since the arrival of Oswaldo Betancort (Coalición Canaria) to the Cabildo and Fernando Clavijo to the Government of the Canary Islands, reaching 97% more properties for vacation rentals in just two years.
According to data from the General Tourist Registry of the Canary Islands, in June 2023 Lanzarote had 5,198 tourist homes. Today there are already 10,555. That is, 5,357 more homes have been allocated to tourism in a context of unprecedented housing emergency. This is the largest growth recorded in the entire archipelago.
For the general secretary of the PSOE of Lanzarote and deputy in Congress, María Dolores Corujo, this figure “portrays the model of Betancort and Clavijo: absolute deregulation, the call effect to the tourist business and the refusal to protect the right to housing of those who live on this island.”
“They have put the ‘For Rent’ sign on the entire island while thousands of families cannot find a house to live in. It is the result of a model without limits, which bows to the interests of a few and leaves behind the social majority,” Corujo denounced.
The general secretary of the PSOE of Lanzarote and deputy in Congress has recalled that neither the Government of the Canary Islands nor the Cabildo have applied any measures to stop the excessive increase of these homes, despite the exponential growth of pressure on public services, access to housing and basic resources.
“They refuse to apply the Housing Law, they do not put caps on rent and they look the other way while the number of people who cannot live in their own municipality grows. Meanwhile, they allow the expansion of vacation rentals even in residential areas, without any planning or control,” she added.
Corujo warns that this is not just a worrying fact, but a clear warning of what it means to continue deepening a tourist model without limits: an island increasingly uninhabitable for those who live on it.
