Say you want to build a house in the dunes. Am I allowed? How big? How tall? How many hotel rooms? Rent out a flat in your garage — legal or not?

All these questions usually have an answer. It comes from a plan. The Plan Insular de Ordenación, PIO for short. It's the rulebook for the whole island.

On Monday, a court said: this rulebook doesn't apply anymore. Full stop.

So what actually happens now?

Nothing. Not yet.

On Tuesday morning the construction workers still climbed the scaffolding. The diggers still dug. The hotels still opened. Nobody got arrested.

But the legal situation is now uncertain. A plan that yesterday said "here yes, there no" is gone.

What does that mean in practice?

  • A building permit currently being reviewed at the town hall? The town hall no longer knows exactly what rules to apply.
  • A hotel project that was based on the PIO? Open to challenge.
  • A protected area defined by the plan? Theoretically up in the air.
  • A permit already issued? Still valid for now, but potentially challengeable.

In short: whoever's already building may be lucky. Whoever wants to build soon has a problem.

What was this plan supposed to do?

The 2022 plan was meant to regulate:

  • Where new homes could go up — on an island with a housing shortage
  • How many hotel beds could be added — on an island with tourism overheating
  • Which landscapes stay protected — mountains, coast, dunes, ravines
  • Where farmland can stay farmland — against creeping concrete
  • Where industry and commerce have space — against empty buildings

Three years of preparation. Dozens of expert reports. Hundreds of pages. Passed by the Cabildo on 29 December 2022.

Now: null and void.

Why did the court strike it down?

The reason sounds trivial. It isn't.

A plan in the Canary Islands has to fit with a higher law. Like a municipal ordinance has to fit with a national law.

The 2022 plan was aligned with a law from 2003. A law that had been scrapped in 2017. Five years before the plan was passed.

Here's an example to make it clear: you build your grandchild a shelf, using a construction plan from 2003. Between 2003 and now, two newer, better plans came out. You still use the old one. The shelf falls over. And then you wonder why.

That's exactly what the court is saying: you can't build a plan for the future on a law that doesn't exist anymore.

What does Morales say?

Cabildo president Antonio Morales was furious on Monday evening. He called the ruling "unjust, mistaken, disproportionate and superficial".

He wants to fight through every level of the courts:

  • First the Tribunal Supremo in Madrid
  • Then the Constitutional Court
  • If needed, European courts

Translation: this could take years before it's finally settled whether the plan is gone or comes back.

And the opposition?

The Partido Popular is sitting pretty today.

In December 2022, when the plan was voted on, the PP abstained. Not for, not against. Now they can say: "We warned you."

On Tuesday morning the PP in the Cabildo hit back hard:

  • Morales had five years to properly update the plan — and didn't do it
  • After it was passed, the plan was left "sitting in a drawer"
  • Morales should stop complaining about the court and "take responsibility" instead

The ruling, the PP says, is "a legal and political blow by every measure".

What changes for me, as a resident?

If you live in an existing home: Nothing. You don't have to move. Your house stays standing.

If you want to build or buy a house: Get proper advice before the notary appointment. Ask which permits were issued under which legal basis.

If you run a hotel or a holiday rental: The licences you already have remain valid for now. New ones will be harder.

If you live in a protected area: In practice the protection stays — other laws still apply. But formally the ground is shaky right now.

If you inherit land or a building plot: Talk to a notary. And soon.

What happens next?

The plan is gone, for now. Maybe not forever, maybe forever — depends on what the higher courts rule.

Two paths are possible:

  1. The earlier version of the plan is reactivated — to the extent it still holds up legally
  2. A completely new plan is written — under the current law from 2017

Either way takes time. Months to years.

Until then: life on Gran Canaria goes on. But the island is building without a building plan right now. Anyone caught in this period — with a project, a permit, an investment — should get legal advice.

Morales and the PP will keep arguing. The court has spoken, more rulings will follow. And the island has to keep running somehow.

Without a rulebook.