The deputy for the islands of Lanzarote and La Graciosa and island president of Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista (NC-BC), Yoné Caraballo, questions for "whom Coalición Canaria (CC) and the Partido Popular (PP) are working for," government partners in Arrecife, the Island Council, and the Government of the Canary Islands, in relation to the housing problem.
For the Canarian, the public representatives of these parties "have been repeatedly rejecting proposals aimed at alleviating the extreme situation in housing, where in Lanzarote the purchase price already exceeds 3,000 euros/square meter; rentals are scarce and their prices are uncontrolled; and vacation rentals have increased by 92 percent since 2023."
“CC and PP refuse to intervene in the speculative real estate market. Moreover, they facilitate the increase in speculation by granting indiscriminate urban planning licenses without guaranteeing that they will go to affordable purchase or rental,” says Caraballo, who denounces that the latest has been the “no from the CC senators to temporarily cap rental prices in the Canary Islands. A real betrayal of the popular interests of the Canarians,” he continues.
For NC-BC, “the policy that these two parties are carrying out only benefits builders who see their profits improved to build free housing thanks to the liberalization of land; real estate rentiers who own several homes and have no incentives to lower prices; and banks, investment funds, and real estate companies that see in the Canary Islands a way to earn a lot of money by selling properties to foreigners.”
“While CC and PP work for real estate speculators, fattening their bottom lines, the social majority of Lanzarote despairs every month at having to allocate more than 40 percent of their salary to housing-related expenses, or in the case of young people, at not being able to move out of their parents' house,” comments the deputy, who recalls that in Arrecife the price of housing has risen by “80 percent in less than 10 years, a period where the PP has governed on most occasions.”
