‘Los Vivitos’: The hidden Shanty Town growing in the South of Tenerife
Just off the TF-1 motorway near Guaza in the south of Tenerife, a makeshift settlement known as Los Vivitos is quietly spreading across 300,000 square metres of protected farmland. Made from tarpaulins, wood, stones, and scrap materials, the area is home to people who can’t afford to live elsewhere on the island.
Unlike established towns, Los Vivitos has no roads, no proper homes, and no basic services. It’s not a tourist development or investment scheme; it’s a desperate solution to a growing housing crisis.
With rental prices skyrocketing in the south due to unfair housing laws, rental laws, and mass tourism, many locals and low-income residents are being pushed out of the housing market entirely.
This isn’t the only case. Across the south of Tenerife, similar informal settlements are appearing in ravines and hillsides, such as the shanty town in El Puertito (Costa Adeje) by the Bahia Principe hotel.
The Canary Islands’ Agency for Environmental Protection has already launched more than 500 investigations this year into illegal land use, more than all of 2024.
Officials say these cases don’t always fit the usual definition of illegal building. Most are not permanent structures but rough shelters built by people with nowhere else to go. The issue is social as much as legal.
The Tenerife Cabildo, along with the local municipal councils and police, are working to create a coordinated response. The mayors of nine southern municipalities recently warned that this is no longer a series of isolated cases, but part of a much bigger structural problem.
Some settlements are even believed to be seasonal or part-time homes, raising questions about whether the occupants are homeless or simply living outside the formal system by choice.
In Gran Canaria, the council of San Bartolomé de Tirajana has already declared homelessness a “structural emergency” and is launching a plan to assess and respond to informal housing on a case-by-case basis.
Back in Los Vivitos, the scene remains one of hardship and improvisation, an increasingly visible sign that Tenerife’s housing model is struggling to meet the needs of its people, even as tourism continues to thrive.
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