The governing body of the Adeje City Council, led by Mayor José Miguel Rodríguez Fraga (PSOE), is set to propose in the upcoming municipal plenary session the initiation of procedures to designate the municipality as a “stressed market area”, utilising Law 12/2023, of May 24, for the right to housing approved by the Spanish Government. This action, as outlined by the mayor himself, forms part of a “more ambitious” strategy, encompassing not only “stimulating the construction of additional residences” but also facilitating “the maximum utilisation of available land” and increasing the number of houses in Armeñime.
To set this declaration in motion, the City Council explains that initial approval of the motion is required. The motion will compel the Government of the Canary Islands to conduct “the necessary studies to assess the socio-economic indicators that would facilitate the implementation of this stressed area declaration.” According to the City Council, this involves “defining, using official statistical data, whether, as presumed, in Adeje, its residents allocate at least 30% of their income to housing or if there has been a rise in purchase or rental prices exceeding 3 points above the CPI in the preceding five years, with the option to conduct this analysis by specific areas or population centres within the municipality itself.”
The mayor of Adeje acknowledges the “serious challenge” of housing accessibility faced by many individuals, including residents of Adeje, young people from the area and beyond, and workers arriving from other parts of the island or the Canary Islands, emphasising the need for the City Council to “do everything within our means to address it.”
Enhancing Housing Availability
Fraga emphasises that “there are no one-size-fits-all solutions, and time will be needed to tackle the issue.” Thus, he states, “this initial step of requesting the stressed area designation is part of a comprehensive and ambitious plan we are formulating and will unveil soon,” a plan encompassing “the construction of more residences, maximising available land, and establishing partnerships with other governmental and non-governmental bodies to construct housing for the working population.”
This measure allows for the prospect that, within a stressed area, “landlords can decrease rental income by 5% in exchange for tax breaks that could reach up to 90%. The deduction would be 70% if rented for the first time to individuals aged 18 to 35 years or if the property has undergone refurbishment or enhancement, with the incentive being 60%,” as stipulated in the motion to be presented in the plenary session. Furthermore, property owners entering into a minimum 10-year contract can forgo the rent freeze and raise the rent by up to 10% in return for extending the contract duration.
Expanding Residences in Armeñime
Adeje discloses that it has already outlined the construction of 45 residences in the Armeñime area, with land transfers to the Canary Islands Government, and it is preparing to provide additional land to increase that number. Over the past three decades, it has initiated housing projects resulting in over a thousand properties hitting the market for the working population, “a path we have traversed and can traverse again since we are experienced in this regard, and ‘The initial step, alongside this motion we are set to approve, is to prepare the land to facilitate such projects,” the mayor stated.
With the stressed area designation, “Adeje aims to aid in controlling rental rates, offering assistance to individuals putting their properties on the market, and implementing tax breaks and other measures that impact and help reduce prices in the upcoming months, averting disproportionate spikes each time a lease renewal occurs,” according to the City Council. The municipality “embraces the challenge of being among the pioneers in implementing these measures, acknowledging the uncertainties surrounding their implementation but confident that each initiative must contribute towards addressing an increasingly severe issue,” it concludes.
If approved, Adeje would become the second municipality in Tenerife to prompt the Canarian Government to devise such a designation, following La Orotava, although no Canarian town has yet received official stressed area status.
