The Canary Islands Government believes that its housing strategy, i.e., “the combination” of the urgent measures decree law and the future holiday rental housing law, is more effective than declaring stressed areas.
This was expressed to EFE by the spokesperson of the Canarian executive, Alfonso Cabello, regarding the announcement by the Adeje City Council that they will request such a declaration at the upcoming municipal council.
Cabello mentioned that the Canarian government will have to address these requests as they come from municipalities, and regarding Adeje’s request, he stated, “we do not know at the moment if it is a motion and will be merely declarative or if there will be a specific request based on land law and the new housing law.”
He further added that within the Government of Canary Islands, they will “analyze the different scenarios as they arise,” without clarifying if there is a prior stance given that the autonomous communities governed by the PP have announced that they will not resort to rent price control mechanisms.
Alfonso Cabello pointed out that the declaration of a stress zone is based on national laws that “essentially try to establish a recommendation for setting maximum prices.”
“We understand that this responds to the good intentions of many individuals, and that this issue is resolved through more executive legislation,” as promoted by the Government of the Canary Islands with the urgent measures decree and the upcoming holiday rental housing law.
In any case, he added, “depending on the scope at the time it arrives – the request from Adeje to declare a stress zone – we will assess what the Government of the Canary Islands’ response should be.”
The regional government spokesperson admitted that “there are certain areas, tourist municipalities that are experiencing problems, such as Adeje or San Bartolomé de Tirajana, but we believe that the combination of these two laws and working together with cabildos and councils will help ease the market over the next few months.”
Adeje
The Adeje City Council announced on Tuesday via social media that the governing group will propose the declaration of a stress zone for approval at the next municipal council meeting, and then the Autonomous Community will be urged to conduct the studies and analyses that initiate the necessary procedures.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda recently published resolutions determining and approving the new reference price index to limit rental prices.
This price control mechanism is primarily aimed at large property holders in stressed areas and establishes a state reference system based on current agreements.
For this to be applied, the declaration of stressed areas is necessary, which must be requested by the autonomous communities, who must present other measures to rectify the imbalances.
This index also applies to properties entering the market that have not been rented in the last five years.
Conversely, when the property is already leased in that area, it will be referenced to the previous agreement, although some upward adjustments can be made. For small property owners, there is a cap on contract updates of 3%.
So far, Catalonia has been the only region to request its application, although other regions have verbally expressed this possibility such as Navarre, Asturias, or the Basque Country. Those governed by the PP, which has challenged this law, will not apply it.
