What does the number of empty homes mean for renters and buyers?
“Homes exist,” economist Rosa Rodríguez said on 10 November at a debate at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. She coordinates the economic reports of the Colegio de Economistas de Las Palmas (the chamber of economists), and she means that most people cannot get at those homes.
Rodríguez put the number of empty homes at 213,951 and said she relied on official sources. No second source for that figure turned up, and the organisation Provivienda speaks of more than 211,000 vacant homes.
Anyone searching in the south of Gran Canaria meets a second factor: holiday lets. According to Rodríguez, around 85% of registered holiday homes sit in tourist micro-destinations such as Playa del Inglés or San Agustín, and only 20% in residential areas.
For people searching, the main point is that empty homes on paper create no rentals. Nobody has yet put a date on when that will change.
Can new arrivals claim protected housing?
Decree 23/2026 of 9 March governs the Registro Público de Demandantes de Vivienda Protegida (the public register of applicants for protected housing). Registration is compulsory, and a points system based on economic, social and family criteria replaces the old lottery.
Media reports cite 12 years of unbroken residence registration in the Canary Islands to be allocated public housing, or 15 years after a break. For registration itself, 4 years are mentioned and one report says 5, and the exact deadlines are in the text of the BOC (the Canary Islands official gazette).
For expats, these reports mean that new arrivals have practically no access to protected housing. Applications go through the Canary government’s online administration portal.
The organisations Derecho a Techo and Observatori Desca have taken the decree to the TSJC (the Canary Islands high court), arguing that it discriminates. No ruling is known.
Why is so little affordable despite the surplus?
Rodríguez names the lowest wages and the lowest per-capita income in Spain as one cause. She adds that owners are pulling homes off the market because the 2023 housing law is not being enforced.
The latest decrees have cut supply by 15%, she said. That is her own estimate, and the debate gave no official figure.
Carmen Esther Falcón of the UNESCO Chair in Tourism spoke of a “perfect storm”. Many people spend 50 to 70% of their pay on housing.
Human geographer Juan Manuel Parreño pointed to ISTAC figures: 32% of tenant households have trouble paying. Prices have risen faster than incomes, he said, especially since the Covid crisis.
According to Fotocasa, an 80-square-metre flat cost around 896 euros on average in 2022 and around 1,197 euros in October 2025, a rise of 56%. Fotocasa also reports that rents in the Canary Islands rose 12.8% in 2025, against around 7% across Spain.
Where are the 30,055 unsold new homes?
On 31 December 2025 the housing ministry counted 30,055 new, unsold homes in the Canary Islands. That is 2.4% more than in 2024, when the figure was 29,333.
Of these, 18,788 are in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and 11,267 in the province of Las Palmas. The ministry puts the islands’ total housing stock at 1,102,198 homes.
Across Spain the surplus fell to 452,670 homes, down 5.7%. The Canary Islands, by contrast, saw Spain’s steepest rise in new-build prices, up 12% in a year.
No official source explains why these homes stay unsold. The idea that they are simply too expensive comes from Rodríguez and her fellow panellists.
Why are so few protected homes being built?
Protected housing in the Canary Islands grew by only 4.6% between 2000 and 2025, against 12% in the rest of Spain. Rodríguez said this, adding that 95.4% of the stock is open-market housing.
From 2018 to 2025, she said, construction of protected homes fell by 90%, and over the past three years it was “straight zero”. That is one speaker’s claim, and no official figure exists for it.
Provivienda puts the stock at 19,412 protected homes, about 1.3% of the market. In June 2026, 34,272 people were looking for one.
Santiago Hernández Torres of the Las Palmas planning department said the city will have “between 2,000 and 3,000” homes in three to five years. The report did not say what that figure covers.
What can we expect next?
The housing plan “Plan de Vivienda Canarias 2026-2031” is in preparation, though sources conflict and also give 2026 to 2030. The research found no publication date.
Consejero (regional minister) Pablo Rodríguez announced that the number of applicants will be published every six months. No date is known for the first publication, nor for the TSJC ruling.
The “Vivienda Vacía” programme of the regional government company Visocan is meant to bring empty homes into use. Owners receive 65 to 75% of the market rent, and the rent is capped at 500 euros and 30% of household income.
In April 2026 a tender worth 1.8 million euros followed for the “Bolsa Activa de Vivienda Asequible”. Rents there would be at most 30% below the market.