How wide is the gap between prices and wages?
According to a CCOO report, purchase prices for housing in the Canary Islands rose by 108 percent between the second quarter of 2013 and the second quarter of 2026. According to the CCOO report, average wages in the Canary Islands rose by only 30 percent in nominal terms between the second quarter of 2013 and the second quarter of 2026.
That means house prices grew 3.6 times faster than wages. A house priced at 100,000 euros in 2013 would have reached 208,000 euros by 2026, while an annual salary of 20,000 euros would have risen to around 26,000 euros.
In the Canary Islands, new rental contracts rose by around 40 percent and existing contracts by 21 percent, while wages rose by 17 percent in this comparison.
How does the price gap affect residents and newcomers?
For Canarian workers, the trend means lower purchasing power and harder access to home ownership and rented housing. Newcomers and foreign residents face the same market prices, as the reporting mentions no special price rule or exemption for expats.
The median room rent stood at 400 euros. Visitors are mainly affected indirectly, because high housing costs can reduce the supply available to permanent residents, and no new tourist rule is mentioned.
What support is available for tenants?
The current call received more than 8,300 applications and has a budget of more than 13 million euros. The Canary Islands Government announced that it would decide on the applications before the end of 2026, with no exact decision date given.
How are purchase prices moving at the moment?
For subsidised housing, the figure was 1,231.2 euros per square metre, an annual rise of 3.7 percent. In the first quarter of 2026, the value of free-market housing stood at 2,233.7 euros per square metre according to the INE data cited, 13.6 percent more than a year earlier.
What measures is the union calling for?
In the short term, CCOO is calling for rental contracts to be extended and converted into open-ended contracts, and for seasonal lets, room rents and holiday rentals to be regulated. In the long term, the union wants to create a permanent stock of 1.5 million affordable homes.
To achieve this, 1.5 percent of gross domestic product should be spent each year on building, buying and taking over homes. The reports mention no new general rent cap and no additional deadlines for residents, expats or visitors.
Which questions remain open?
It remains open when and whether further measures will narrow the price gap between housing costs and incomes. The Canary Islands Government has so far published no exact decision date for Bono Alquiler Joven applications.