The Parliament of the Canary Islands approved on Wednesday the Law for the expediting of urban planning licenses and the promotion of housing construction, a regulation aimed at addressing the housing emergency in the islands.
The Parliament of the Canary Islands greenlit on Wednesday the Law for the expediting of urban planning licenses and the promotion of housing construction, a regulation that aims to shorten administrative timelines and mobilise available land to increase the supply of protected and affordable housing. The initiative, jointly promoted by the departments of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Water, and Public Works, Housing and Mobility, comes in the context of a declared housing emergency in the archipelago.
The Minister of Public Works, Housing and Mobility, Pablo Rodríguez, described the approval as "a decisive step to eliminate the obstacles that have slowed down housing construction in the Canary Islands for years." Rodríguez thanked the work of parliamentary groups and local administrations during the processing, which allowed for enriching the final text with diverse contributions.
The new law establishes collaboration mechanisms with municipalities to expedite the granting of urban planning licenses, maintaining municipal competencies and public control over the procedures. Thus, municipalities that wish to do so may incorporate technical reports prepared by accredited collaborating entities, professional associations, or their own means, which will allow for reducing processing times without renouncing legal guarantees.
One of the most notable innovations is the creation of the incentivised affordable housing figure, aimed at families whose incomes exceed the limits to access public housing but who also cannot afford market prices. This new model of private rental housing will have limited rents, regulated access criteria, and oversight from the Canary Islands Housing Institute.
Minister Rodríguez emphasised that "this law marks a before and after in the housing policy of the Canary Islands because it addresses the main problem we had: time. It is of little use to have land or financing if the houses take years to be built." He added that the regulation combines measures to expedite administrative management with instruments that allow for putting more protected and affordable housing on the market using already transformed land, unfinished buildings, or undeveloped plots, without the need to continue consuming territory.
Among the main innovations of the law are the possibility of designating tertiary, industrial, or commercial lands for residential use when viable; facilitating the completion of unfinished buildings and developments to convert them into protected housing; allowing the construction of protected housing on certain public and service lands; and promoting industrialised construction and other measures aimed at reducing the execution timelines of developments.
For his part, the Minister of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Water, Manuel Miranda, stated that "today the Parliament sends a clear message: the Canary Islands cannot afford for bureaucracy to continue hindering access to housing." Miranda highlighted that the law is the result of coordinated work between the two departments and demonstrates that collaboration within the Government yields results when the goal is to respond to the real problems of citizens. "We put the administration at the service of the people and turn administrative streamlining into a tool to facilitate access to housing," he added.
The regulation also incorporates mechanisms to facilitate the early execution of protected housing, expedite the activity of housing cooperatives, reinforce the social function of the public housing stock, and establish allocation criteria that prioritise those in greatest need, ensuring transparency and rootedness in the Canary Islands.
The new law maintains respect for municipal autonomy, as essential decisions regarding planning, changes of use, or granting of licenses continue to correspond to municipalities, while preserving all guarantees regarding safety, habitability, and accessibility.
With this approval, the Government of the Canary Islands strengthens its strategy to increase the supply of protected and affordable housing through administrative simplification, institutional collaboration, and the efficient use of already available land. The law will come into effect in the coming days following its publication in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands.
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