From tent huts to cave houses, the lack of housing in the Canary Islands, and specifically in the south of Tenerife, has reached extreme levels. Surprisingly, these unusual offers can be found on specialized portals such as real estate agencies, without any apparent supervision from the competent administration.
One recent offering on the milanuncios.com portal caught our attention. It advertises an 18 square meter bedroom with a bathroom for rent in San Isidro (Granadilla de Abona) at a price of 500 euros per month (28 euros per square meter, it explains), plus two months’ deposit. However, it is specified that only the room is rented, preferably to a woman, with no access to a kitchen, no visitors allowed, and smoking prohibited. What’s more surprising is that the same room can be shared with another person, and both individuals can get a discount of up to 350 euros per month, each having to pay that amount plus a month’s deposit.
Additionally, in the affluent tourist municipality of Adeje, a garage converted into a house is being rented for 700 euros per month, despite being just a few kilometers away from the street with the most expensive houses in the Canary Islands, where homes are valued at 1.7 million euros each and rent for over 18,000 euros per month.
Similarly, in Arona, another major tourist municipality in the area, six apartments with one room, converted from commercial premises, are being sold for 115,000 euros each at Palm-mar.
These examples depict the dire housing situation in Tenerife. Currently, there are only 11 properties on the Idealista portal that can be rented for less than 600 euros per month on the Island.