The Canary Islands government has announced the upcoming allocation of 42 social housing units in Playa Blanca, Yaiza. These properties, constructed by a private developer, were acquired in January 2025 by the Lanzarote Cabildo and the Canary Islands Housing Institute (ICAVI). However, their allocation has faced a delay of one year and nine months due to bureaucratic hurdles.
Despite this announcement, no social housing has been completed in the Canary Islands this legislative term. Recent data from the Canary Islands Statistics Institute (ISTAC), updated as of March 2026, has confirmed this. The last completed social housing was recorded in January 2022, when 208 public units were finished during Ángel Víctor Torres’s presidency.
The previous legislative period resulted in only 268 completed protected homes (60 in September 2019 and 208 in January 2022), while 18,177 private properties were finished between 2019 and 2022.
Over the past three years, the coalition government led by Fernando Clavijo has not completed any social housing despite an ongoing housing crisis. In this time frame, however, they did complete 6,917 private homes for the open market.
In the last decade, from 2016 to 2025, the Canary Islands completed 22,679 free-market homes but only 412 public units. During this period, just 999 protected homes were initiated, with the most significant activity recorded in 2025 when construction began on 134 social units in Los Geranios.
Currently, a project for 201 official protection units, managed by Visocan, remains stalled. Nationally, the number of initiated free-market homes has risen by 10.6% compared to the first half of 2025, although this growth is seven points lower than in the Canary Islands.
