How much have prices and rents risen?
According to the Estadística de Valor Tasado, the housing ministry's appraisal statistics, the average appraised value of open-market homes in the Canaries was 2,279 euros per square metre in the second quarter of 2026. That is 14.2% more than a year earlier, while the figure for Spain as a whole rose 12.5% to 2,355 euros.
We found no official price series for Fuerteventura. So the Canaries figure is a guide, not the price in Corralejo or Pájara.
The Fundación Alquiler Seguro reports an average rent of 1,211 euros a month in the Canaries for the third quarter of 2026, in its Barómetro del Alquiler. That is 8.81% more than at the end of 2025, while the Spanish average is 1,214 euros.
For the province of Las Palmas, which includes Fuerteventura, the Barómetro gives 1,183 euros, up from 1,135 euros at the end of 2025. In the first ten days, 109 would-be tenants applied per home there, down from 121 at the end of 2025.
Why is it so hard to find a long-term rental?
The supply of long-term rental homes in the Canaries has fallen by 40% since 2021, says the Observatorio del Alquiler. Demand now meets a much smaller market.
According to Diario de Fuerteventura, Pájara averages 111 overnight stays a day per 100 residents, based on INE data for June 2025 to May 2026. That ranks third in Spain, behind Mogán with 125 and Sant Llorenç des Cardassar with 121.
Every municipality on Fuerteventura sits above the Spanish average of 1.28% for holiday lets as a share of all recorded homes. That is the finding of a map by the organisation Provivienda, using INE data from May 2026.
La Oliva leads with 23.55%, followed by Antigua with 13.8% and Pájara with 11.46%. Tuineje (5.46%) and Betancuria (4.45%) are lower, and Puerto del Rosario has the island's lowest share at 2.11%.
Provivienda points to scientific evidence of a close link between holiday rentals and the prices of long-term rents and purchases. None of the figures we found proves that link for Fuerteventura itself.
What does the tenants' union SIF say?
Chus Vila, spokesperson for the Sindicato de Inquilinas de Fuerteventura (SIF, the island's tenants' union), sees a problem of distribution: “There are enough houses for the whole population.” But there are hardly any homes to live in, she says.
Small landlords also push up prices, according to Vila. Anyone who used to ask 400 euros a month now wants double, she says.
Around 300 people marched through Puerto del Rosario on 11 November 2026, according to the Policía Nacional and Policía Local (national and local police). The march fell on the nationwide general strike for housing, and representatives of the Cabildo (island government), the town halls and the parties did not attend.
In its manifesto, the SIF urgently demands tense-market zones across the whole island, with no holiday letting in residential areas. It also wants a moratorium on purchases of property not used as homes, and a stop to evictions without replacement housing.
The union also calls for a genuine public housing stock, including by buying empty houses. It wants firms that clear squatted properties to be banned.
What are the authorities doing, and what is still open?
Spain has a rent cap only for areas that apply for and are granted a zona tensionada, a tense housing market zone. For Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the public consultation run by the Instituto Canario de la Vivienda (ICAVI) closes on 12 November 2026.
We found no municipality on Fuerteventura with such a procedure. Vila calls it “utterly ridiculous” that Pájara and La Oliva have not applied, and she sees Puerto del Rosario heading the same way.
In Puerto del Rosario, the Gobierno de Canarias (Canary Islands government) lists 75 provisionally allocated protected homes (October 2025). On 28 May 2026, the Cabildo and the government laid the foundation stone for 47 affordable rental homes.
In Corralejo (La Oliva), the government says 77 protected homes are being built with 10.5 million euros. It also plans to renovate 507 homes in Corralejo and El Cotillo.
A Canarian law of November 2025 governs holiday letting, and according to the details of the Pájara plan, new holiday flats are no longer allowed in Lajita. No reply from the Cabildo or the town halls to the SIF demands is on record.
What does this mean for renters, buyers and visitors?
No rule changes for renters and buyers from now on. Anyone searching should plan for high prices and a small choice, and we found no new rules or official advice for renters.
If you want to register on the island, check with the landlord before signing that the empadronamiento (entry in the local residents' register) is possible. That is practical advice, not an official ruling.
Visitors notice the situation mainly in what is on offer. According to the SIF, the high share of holiday lets in La Oliva, Antigua and Pájara is tied to the housing shortage for locals, and there are no figures on holiday accommodation prices.
The issue is moving closer to politics: after two housing decrees failed in the Congreso (Spain's lower house of parliament), the Spanish government has called early elections for 29 November 2026. The source gave no date for the ICAVI decision on Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.