Does 2.32 percent mean only 2.32 percent of Canary homes are protected?

No. It is the share of sales registered in one month. For the stock, the ISTAC survey for the fourth quarter of 2024 gives 12.32 percent of adults who bought their home.

Why are protected homes sold less often?

Because law 2/2003 restricts it: article 39 bars transfer during the protection period as a matter of principle, and article 65 gives the Instituto Canario de la Vivienda a right of first refusal.

How many protected homes are being built in the Canaries?

The ministry records zero completed and zero started in the first quarter of 2026; the Instituto Canario de la Vivienda counts 241 started in 2025.

What may a protected home cost?

Article 36 of law 2/2003 imposes an official maximum price. No archipelago-wide figure is published; the appraised value in the second quarter of 2026 was 1,231.2 euros per square metre.

Are the July figures final?

No. The INE explicitly classifies the 2026 data as provisional.

CANARY ISLANDS · HOUSING

53 of 2,289: why protected homes so rarely change hands in the Canaries

Of the 2,289 home sales registered in the Canary Islands' property registers in July 2026, 53 involved a protected home — 2.32 percent, against 6.2 percent across Spain. Only the Balearics were lower. But the figure measures sales, not stock: protected homes may as a rule not be resold while their protection period runs. How much is being built is in a second set of statistics — and for the Canaries in the first quarter of 2026 that one reads zero.

26 September 2026 · By Martin Kosinski · 5 min · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief

Apartment blocks on Calle Bentagache in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (illustrative)

Photo: Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0 (illustrative image).

The figures and their sources

INE, tables ETDP.5 and ETDP.10, July 2026, provisional: 53 of the 2,289 Canary home sales were protected, 2.32 percent; Las Palmas 26 of 1,258, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 27 of 1,031. New-build share 26.8 percent against 21.6 percent nationally. Our own calculation.
INE, press release of 25 September 2026: 6.2 percent of Spanish home sales were protected; protected sales fell 14.4 percent against July 2025. The only region below the Canaries was the Balearics, at 0.91 percent (ETDP.5).
Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, 11 June 2026: in the first quarter of 2026, 5,215 protected homes were completed and 4,048 started across Spain — for the Canaries, zero in both columns.
Instituto Canario de la Vivienda, 2025: 22,015 homes in the public stock, 34,156 people on the applicants' register, 327 requests to be released from the protected regime.
ISTAC, cube E20007A_000001, second quarter of 2026: appraised value of protected homes in the Canaries 1,231.2 euros per square metre (up 3.66 percent), Spain 1,247.0 euros (up 4.97).

What the 2.32 percent counts

The figure sits in the annex tables of the statistics institute INE for July 2026: of 2,289 registered Canary home sales, 53 involved a protected home, 26 in the province of Las Palmas and 27 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Nationally it was 3,810 of 61,417, and among the 19 territories these tables list, only the Balearic group is lower. A weak market is not the explanation: according to table ETDP.11, Canary home sales rose 2.1 percent, while nationally they fell 5.1 percent. Nor is new construction missing — its share, 26.8 percent, is the third highest in the country.

Sales are not stock — and the law says so

A protected home is sold less often because the law requires it. Canary housing law 2/2003, in the consolidated version as at 22 April 2025, ties the protection period in article 39.2 to the term of the loan used to buy the home and caps it at thirty years; for publicly promoted housing it is permanent under article 49. Paragraph 3 bars transfer between the living while the regime runs as a matter of principle — possible only with authorisation and just cause, and within the first ten years only against repayment of all aid with interest. Article 36 imposes an official maximum price; article 65 gives the Instituto Canario de la Vivienda a right of first refusal on second sales where public aid came to at least 15 percent of the purchase price.

What is actually published about stock and building

Two solid Canary figures exist for the stock, and neither is 2.3 percent. The Instituto Canario de la Vivienda reports in its 2025 statistics a public stock of 22,015 homes under its management. Broader is the household survey of the statistics office ISTAC for the fourth quarter of 2024: of 1,008,564 adults who bought their home, 124,212 live in a protected one — 12.32 percent, more than five times the share of sales. A single figure for the archipelago's entire protected stock is not published. On construction the record is thin: the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda records zero protected homes completed and zero started in the Canaries in the first quarter of 2026; the Instituto Canario de la Vivienda counts 241 started in 2025. So the resale restriction alone does not explain the share.

The regional government and the ministry count different things

The regional government offers a different series. According to a report by Radio Televisión Canaria on 24 July 2026, the department for public works, housing and mobility has received 200 applications for provisional qualification covering 4,047 protected homes since the start of the parliamentary term — 75 applications for 2,004 homes in 2024, 95 for 1,589 in 2025, 30 for 454 in the first half of 2026, and between two and 14 a year before that. Consejero Pablo Rodríguez said, as reported by RTVC: "When obstacles are removed, procedures are speeded up and conditions are created that make projects viable, the sector responds." For that same first quarter of 2026 the ministry records not one provisional qualification. Applications received are not qualifications granted, and a qualification is not a finished home.

The gap between free-market and protected housing

Alongside this the values are drifting apart. ISTAC cube E20007A_000001 puts the appraised value of protected homes in the Canaries at 1,231.2 euros per square metre in the second quarter of 2026, up 3.66 percent over a year; Spain comes to 1,247.0 euros and up 4.97 percent. For free-market homes the same statistics give 2,279.4 euros for the Canaries in the same quarter. The ratio of free-market to protected appraised value therefore widened from 1.681 to 1.851; our own calculation. Nationally it stands at 1.889 — so the Canary gap is still slightly narrower.

The Canary administration does not publish an archipelago-wide maximum price per square metre for protected housing. Anyone who needs it for a particular home applies for it at the regional e-government office, with the title deed and a land-register extract showing the file number and the date of the definitive qualification. The norms the office cites are Real Decreto 727/1993, Decreto 135/2009 and Decreto-ley 1/2024.

Two caveats belong with these figures. The July data are provisional; with this release the INE has already revised July to December 2025 — from the stated annual change of plus 2.1 percent, July 2025 works out at about 2,242 Canary home sales against the 2,311 published a year ago (our own calculation). And the tables differ: ETDP.5 and ETDP.10, the source of the 2.32 percent, list 19 territories including Ceuta (52 home sales) and Melilla (49), while ETDP.11, which carries the annual changes, lists only 17 and leaves both out.

FAQ

Does 2.32 percent mean only 2.32 percent of Canary homes are protected?: No. It is the share of sales registered in one month. For the stock, the ISTAC survey for the fourth quarter of 2024 gives 12.32 percent of adults who bought their home.
Why are protected homes sold less often?: Because law 2/2003 restricts it: article 39 bars transfer during the protection period as a matter of principle, and article 65 gives the Instituto Canario de la Vivienda a right of first refusal.
How many protected homes are being built in the Canaries?: The ministry records zero completed and zero started in the first quarter of 2026; the Instituto Canario de la Vivienda counts 241 started in 2025.
What may a protected home cost?: Article 36 of law 2/2003 imposes an official maximum price. No archipelago-wide figure is published; the appraised value in the second quarter of 2026 was 1,231.2 euros per square metre.
Are the July figures final?: No. The INE explicitly classifies the 2026 data as provisional.

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