Storage room for rent converted into a home that does not measure six square meters (5.8) in the center of Santa Cruz de Tenerife by 430 euros per month. He zulopiso It offers a bed, wardrobe, kitchen (including microwave), bathroom and even a washing machine in a space not suitable for claustrophobics.
This offer, which appeared this Wednesday in Idealisticone of the main home rental platforms in the country, shows How far are the consequences of the real estate crisis suffered by the Islands?. The drastic drop in long-term rental optionshe big price increase and the lack of control of the administrations have opened a ample space for speculation, mischief and abusive and irregular practices.
The despair of many Tenerife residents to find a roof at a price affordablean increasingly impossible mission, has made, as explained by the general secretary of the Consumers Union of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (UCE), Raúl Alonso, that «Offers like this, which seemed unthinkable very recently, proliferate on real estate platforms».
The desperation of Tenerife residents to find a decent home has led to the proliferation of abuse and mischief.
Alonso considers that behind many of them there may be irregularities but adds that the lack of clear regulations, gaps in control mechanisms and the absence of means for surveillance mean that the market has become a chaos where anything goes. «How can you offer a six-square-meter storage room as a home? Do you have a certificate of occupancy? Does it meet the legal conditions to be used as a rental house? In the absence of responses, I am sure that this offer has generated quite a few calls of interest,” he says.
Similar news appears more and more frequently in the Islands. And they don’t just have to do with conventional rental; also with the holiday homeswhose rise and lack of regulation is one of the causes of this real estate crisis.
There is hardly any control to put a stop to abuses, frauds and irregularities in the island real estate market
There is even social media users who have specialized in reporting this situation. An example is Antonio David Flores, a Tenerife native who uses irony in his complaints. “I’m screaming,” he says on X (former Twitter) when reporting the rental of a room in a cave house in the South for 270 euros. The photos say it all about the terrible condition of the house.
In another post, he retweets a comment about renting tents as if they were shared rooms in a building in Lanzarote. And more recently, he comments on the rental of a house in terrible condition in Fasnia: «We continue with the real estate bargains in Canary Islands. Who hasn’t dreamed of living in a post-war house? Well, for only 800 euros per month. “You can tuck your pajama bottoms into your socks so the rats don’t get in.”
Raúl Alonso assures that the main competencies In housing, the autonomous communities have them, while in the case of vacation homes it would correspond to the councils, being tourist accommodations. «The lack of definition and the jurisdictional mess is such that for all intents and purposes there are hardly any controls. For example, if we talk about health, it would correspond to Public Health, or if we talk about habitability certificates, it would correspond to the town councils.
That is to say, all administrationsfrom state and regional to local, responsibilities are distributed. But the truth is that the rules do not clearly specify the limitations and whose responsibility it is to prevent fraud or abuse,” explains the head of the province’s Consumer Union.
Citizens report very little; The crisis is such that resignation has prevailed and incredible offers are accepted
Another problem is that they arrive very few complaints. «The difficulty of finding housing is such and the need of many people is such that the resignation. Some accept fraudulent offers or abusive conditions because there are no more options on the market,” highlights Raúl Alonso.
Apart from improving regulation and means of control, Alonso believes that the main solution goes through “a true public rental housing market, with conditions adapted to the economic reality of each family. And he gives Vienna, the Austrian capital, as an example. «Vienna does have a large public purse to offer to the citizens with fewer resources, accompanied by policies to promote social integration,” he concludes.
