The Canary Islands are facing a serious housing shortage, but FECAM claim there are more than 25,000 homes with projects ready to be built, waiting for construction licences to be issued or processed. Various sectors have stressed the urgent need to expand the housing stock in the region, highlighting that the current licencing delays are causing a major bottleneck.
The President of the Canary Islands Federation of Municipalities (FECAM), Mari Brito, highlighted the issue yesterday, Tuesday, saying: "We have identified the situation across many municipalities. Some delays might be due to other problems, but the average processing time currently ranges between a year to a year and a half."
The paradoxical situation is such that construction companies say it often "takes longer to complete the paperwork than the construction work." They argue that by simply processing the permits efficiently, it would be possible to "build all the necessary homes quickly" in the Canary Islands for residents.
On March 20th, the Canaries Parliament ratified an emergency housing decree, which will not be processed as a bill. Pablo Rodríguez, the regional housing councillor, highlighted the inadequacy of the current Canary Islands housing plan, which only includes 2,000 planned homes.
He emphasised the need for more comprehensive measures, including making more land available by recategorizing it, creating social housing with protected rents, simplifying administrative processes, converting unfinished commercial spaces into residential units, and completing unfinished housing projects "without consuming much more land than currently planned."
