The ongoing battle over holiday rentals in the Canary Islands has taken another turn. The Canary Islands Holiday Rental Association, better known as ASCAV, has formally asked the Spanish Ombudsman to challenge the new regional law that regulates holiday homes in the islands. Their request is simple enough. They want the Ombudsman to file an appeal of unconstitutionality before the Constitutional...
Trying to understand the state of social housing in the Canary Islands is a bit like trying to track down an honest property listing online… you assume someone, somewhere, must have the full picture. Turns out they don’t. According to information obtained through a transparency request, the Canary Islands Housing Institute (ICAVI) has admitted that it doesn’t actually have a complete list of...
Hermigua, La Gomera, Islas Canarias
They’ve just allocated €350 million to guarantee electricity supply in the Canary Islands. Not exciting. Not dramatic. But quietly one of the most important bits of news you’ll read this year. The Spanish Government has awarded over 1,000 megawatts of new electrical generation capacity for the Canary Islands, spread across 62 generation units. The aim is simple: guarantee supply until at...
They’re launching satellites from Tenerife. No, Elon Musk hasn’t bought a villa in Costa Adeje. This is real. Over the next couple of years, Tenerife will put four low-Earth orbit satellites into space as part of something called the Canary Islands Satellite Constellation. And before you switch off thinking it’s just political headline noise, it’s actually a big deal. And not just for...
It’s that time of year again. Hearts in shop windows.Special menus everywhere.Rural hotels offering “romantic escapes”. In the Canary Islands, rural tourism is sitting at around 70% occupancy for Valentine’s weekend. Restaurants are reporting strong bookings. Florists are stacking up red roses. On the surface, it all looks very rosy. Underneath it… slightly different story. Roses,...
This is what happens when you trust the machine more than your own job title. A lawyer in the Canary Islands has been fined €420 after submitting an appeal backed up by 48 completely fictitious Supreme Court rulings. All generated by AI. Not one of them real. A Simple Check Would Have Done The appeal was filed with the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, challenging a previous...
Not the most exciting headline in the world… but if you’re building, developing or waiting on paperwork, this matters. Santa Cruz has managed to cut the waiting time for new building licences almost in half. And in Spain, that’s not nothing. From Eleven Months… to Six The Urban Planning Department at Santa Cruz Town Hall has reduced the time it takes to grant new building licences from...
If you take a chainsaw to a tree in the Canary Islands now, you’d better have a very good reason. Because the rules have changed. Quietly… but significantly. Trees Are No Longer “Just There” A new Urban Tree Law has officially come into force across the Canary Islands. It’s now been published in the State Gazette, which means it’s live. And the tone of it is clear. Trees are...
This one sits slightly outside the usual housing and tourism headlines, but it matters. The Canary Islands government is pushing the idea that the archipelago could become a global laboratory for ocean protection and climate change solutions, and they’ve been pitching that message directly to the international community. At the second edition of DiploInnova Canarias, held this week in Madrid,...
This was always going to be questioned. The groups behind Canarias Tiene un Límite, the movement that organised the mass protests on 20 April, have formally asked Coalición Canaria to make public the plans they claim to have for limiting growth in the islands, including their much-talked-about Law of Residence. So far, according to the movement, there’s been plenty of talk and very little...
This is one of those statements that sounds simple, but carries a lot of weight. The Canary Islands’ Minister for Public Works, Pablo Rodríguez, has publicly encouraged the tourism sector to invest its profits into building housing, particularly protected and affordable homes across the islands. The message is fairly blunt.Private money is expected to help solve a public housing...
This has been bubbling away for a while, and now it’s landing properly. The Spanish Ministry of Housing has instructed online platforms to remove 86,275 illegal short term and temporary rental listings across Spain.Out of that total, 13,726 are in the Canary Islands. That puts Canarias firmly among the regions with the highest number of rejected registrations. Not ideal, but hardly...
It’s not exactly headline grabbing stuff. But if you’ve ever dealt with the Spanish legal system and thought, “This is going nowhere fast,” then this matters. Spain has confirmed it will create 33 new judicial posts in the Canary Islands in 2026, with several of those strengthening courts here in Tenerife. And here’s the key bit. That’s more than the total number of new judicial...
It’s uncomfortable reading, this one....and although I'm not taking responsibility for it, I'm fully aware that I've had something to do with it in some part. According to Nueva Canarias - a Canarian political party - the Canary Islands are now facing a housing situation that feels like it’s gone backwards by decades. People living in cars. Vans. Caravans. Even caves. Not for the experience. Not...
It’s not the cheeriest headline, but it’s worth paying attention to. According to the latest BBVA Research forecasts, the Canary Islands are expected to drop from Spain’s fastest-growing region to the slowest by 2027. Quite a swing, especially given how strong things look right now. At the end of 2025, the islands were sitting pretty, with economic growth of around 3.5%, the highest in Spain....
This may not be the most exciting subject, but it directly affects day-to-day life in the Canary Islands. That alone makes it worth paying attention to. According to the Canary Islands Government, Spain’s proposed new regional funding model leaves Canarias as the only autonomous community that does not improve its position. Everyone else moves forward.The Canary Islands do not. In fact, under...
Usually, the drive into Santa Cruz is a bit of a battle, but the real struggle these days isn't on the TF-1... it’s in the property listings. As you might know, I record a video called the Tenerife Property Market Snapshot every month, this is a snapshot of the property market in the south...of the main areas that I dealw ith for property sales...I report on the average asking prices for Arona,...
It’s not the cheeriest statistic, but it’s an important one. According to a report presented in mid-December 2025 by the Canary Islands Observatory of Social Rights, the region now ranks as the second autonomous community in Spain for structural housing emergency. The findings come from an in-depth review of the Canary Islands Government’s proposed 2026 budgets, and they raise some...
For all the disruption Storm Emilia brought with it, there’s been at least one very tangible upside. Following the heavy rainfall in mid-December 2025, Tenerife’s reservoirs are now sitting at around 41% of total capacity. According to the Island Council’s department for the Primary Sector, that represents an increase of roughly 110,000 cubic metres of water compared to the start of the...
After a few unsettled days, there’s some good news on the ground in Santa Cruz. Following the passage of Storm Emilia in mid-December 2025, Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council has confirmed that all parks and public green spaces previously closed as a precaution are now fully reopened. The decision comes after technical inspections, clean-up work, and safety checks were completed across the...
Heavy rain, strong winds, and rare snowfall mark a turbulent few days It’s been one of those weeks where the weather really reminds you who’s in charge.Around the middle of December 2025, Storm Emilia rolled through the Canary Islands and left its mark, giving the archipelago a very thorough soaking. In parts of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, rainfall totals climbed past 100 litres per square...
It’s not the kind of news anyone wants to wake up to, but sadly the sea has taken another life in the islands. The conditions this week have been brutal, and once again the ocean has proved just how unforgiving it can be. A 27-year-old fisherman in Lanzarote, rescued in critical condition on Sunday after being swept away by a large wave in Los Charcones (Yaiza), has passed away. He becomes the...
Not the usual topic I write about, but it’s always good to shine a light on the talent coming through here in Tenerife. And this year’s Merkarte Navidad looks set to be a big one. From 18 December to 18 January, the La Recova Art Centre in Santa Cruz will host the latest edition of Merkarte, a project backed by the Cabildo that gives young creators a proper platform to show and sell their work....
It’s one of those bits of local news that doesn’t grab headlines, but actually matters a great deal, especially if you grow anything on this island. This December, Tenerife’s agricultural reservoirs (the balsas you see dotted around the landscape) have reached 34% of their total capacity. It might not sound like much, but it’s a noticeable improvement, up 7.5% from last month, and it means...
New Law Freezes Holiday Rental Licences in the Canary Islands: What It Means for You. Not the most exciting topic on the surface, but one that’s sent shockwaves throughout the Canary Island property world, especially if you’ve ever considered buying a place to rent on Airbnb. The Canary Islands Parliament has just passed the Law on Sustainable Planning of Tourist Use of Housing, and the headline...
We've talked about this before and you might have seen the headlines ... “Spain bans foreign buyers!” or “New rules to stop foreigners buying homes in Spain!” And if you’ve been thinking about buying here, that probably gave you a bit of a jolt. But let’s be clear: that’s not actually happening. Yes, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez floated the idea of limiting or even...
Image credits: Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López by JUAN BLAS tenerife, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons. "It would be a perfect culmination of the Heliodoro Centenary," said the president of the Cabildo, Rosa Dávila. Santa Cruz de Tenerife - The project proposed by the only two world football champions born in the Canary Islands (Pedro Rodríguez and David Silva) has...
A multi-million-euro budget will fund the renovation and expansion of airport infrastructure across the Canary Islands. The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has unveiled the ‘DORA III’ project, a national airport investment plan worth almost €13 billion to be rolled out between 2027 and 2031. Of this amount, around €800 million will be allocated specifically to the airports of the...
The Socialist Party warns that around 32,000 homes have disappeared from the residential market in just two years, urging the regional government to act quickly to regulate housing supply. Santa Cruz de Tenerife – The Socialist Party (PSOE) has raised the alarm over what it describes as a serious imbalance in the Canary Islands housing market. According to the party’s spokesperson, Sebastián...
Airbnb has announced a major milestone in the Canary Islands tourism sector, with the number of registered vacation rentals on its platform growing by more than 45% since January 1. The increase comes after a collaboration agreement with the Government of the Canary Islands aimed at strengthening short-term rentals regulation and promoting sustainable tourism in the region. Sara Rodríguez, Director of...
The Canary Islands government has taken decisive action to confront a new agricultural threat: the detection of phylloxera, a vine-destroying pest that historically devastated European vineyards in the 19th century. At the end of July, 67 outbreaks were confirmed in Tenerife, prompting officials to establish a new scientific-technical committee dedicated to understanding and managing the problem. A...
Santa Cruz de Tenerife is bracing for a sharp rise in its waste collection tax, with residents expected to see an average increase of 50% starting January 1, 2026. The news was confirmed this week by José Alberto Díaz-Estébanez, the city’s Councilor of Finance, who expressed frustration over the measure, calling it “mandatory, unavoidable, inexplicable, and unproductive.” The tax hike comes as...
What You Need to Know... Buying a property in Spain is a significant investment, and recent headlines about a proposed 100% tax on property purchases by non-EU nationals have raised concerns among many potential buyers. While the announcement has stirred up debate, it’s important to look beyond the sensationalism and understand the context, implications, and feasibility of this...
Introduction to Spain's Golden Visa Program Spain offers a visa as a gateway for investors seeking “The Spanish Way Of Life” and economic benefits. The Golden Visa is one way for non-EU nationals to gain residency in Spain, hence avoiding the 90/180 day rule and being able to have freedom of movement throughout Europe and EU countries. In this article I’ll describe how to get a...
https://youtu.be/tqrEyuTGaI0 Tenerife Property Market Overview - November 2023 Comparison Between November 2022 and November 2023: Arona area: Property prices increased by approximately 20%. Los Cristianos: Prices rose by around 13% over the last 12 months. Adeje: Property prices increased by about 26% in the last year. Costa Adeje: Prices increased just under 20% from November...
Navigating the 90-Day Rule: Exploring Options for Extended Stays in Spain and what the future may bring. Understanding the 90-Day Rule: - The Schengen Area, comprising twenty-seven member states like Spain, France, Germany, Greece, Belgium, and Croatia, offers freedom of movement. Post-Brexit, Britons are now considered third-country nationals and are subject to the 90-day rule, restricting them to...
Quite simply a message to the British Media who seem to have a wish to spread rumours and lies about what's actually happening here in Tenerife with the...
https://youtu.be/0d_rkSFqPIc New beginnings...we're now in Los Cristianos...here's the great...
https://youtu.be/STLFZLI7urQ I'm closing the Playa Fañabé...
If you're coming to Tenerife over the next few months, you need to watch this video to prepare yourself for what to expect. In this video, I go over the latest rules about wearing masks in Tenerife during July 2020 and possibly onwards. https://youtu.be/bj73Tag7yQE If you're coming to Tenerife over the next few months, you need to watch this video to prepare yourself for what to expect. In this...
In this video I concentrated on Las Americas and the surrounding area. We look at what businesses are open, surfing in Las Americas and take a look at some of your favourite hotels and hot spots. Don't forget to subscribe -...
I spent a couple of hours walking around Los Cristianos to find out how the town is getting ready for the start of Phase 2 next week...good news, we're on the move. Don't forget to subscribe to this channel so you don't miss out on other...
I took a drive the long way round to my office today...it's the first day of the first phase of the lockdown being lifted. Plenty of quiet beaches but things are looking positive for Tenerife and the Canary Islands...click below to see the...
This is a Facebook Live video I did on Thursday 30th April about the de-escalation of 2020 lockdown in Tenerife and I also did a session. of ask me anything about Tenerife...click below to watch the...
As I finish my seemingly more regular lunch of a cheese sandwich and a couple of glasses of red wine, I’m thinking that this will have to stop when we get back to normal, my doctor certainly wouldn’t approve at all…but the question of normality stuck in my mind…what will normal be when we get over this pandemic? No...this is nothing like it at all..lol Like a lot of people, I’ve had a...
My brother texted me earlier this morning...are you confined to home he asked?... Confined to home? I've been home since last Saturday, 14th March, having come back from work at lunchtime I watched the news about how they were going to lockdown Spain on Monday morning at 0800 hrs, which they then changed to be Saturday night...that was it, I was inside. Having been home a week today, I've been...
The Brexit referendum was on June 23rd 2016 and since then I think that the worry of Brexit that affected the number of UK buyers looking to buy a property in Tenerife has subsided quite a bit since then. There are undoubtedly a number of potential buyers still pondering the pros and cons of what Brexit might bring, so I thought that now we know a little more...or at least we've had time to think about...
At last, the Cabildo of Tenerife have given the go-ahead for the long awaited "Circuit Tenerife Island", the Formula 1 track in Tenerife that I wrote about a couple of years ago. The circuit will be situated close to the village of Atogo, about 2km away from the south airport which will afford great access to the track itself. Designed by TN y GPO engineers, the circuit will be extremely...
For those of you who have been following my Facebook Page, you'll all be up to date on the weather problems that we had this week, for those of you that are not yet connected, click this link to the Tenerife Property Group Facebook Page, where you'll find loads more pictures. This past week has been a cause for concern for everyone here in Tenerife. The island pretty much came to a standstill on...
Recently the weather has been bad. When I say bad, it's not as bad as it has been in the UK of late but never-the-less, it has been a poor few weeks here in Tenerife. February and especially March are renowned for being the two main months of bad weather in Tenerife, and although I have been here for some years, it is still a shock to the system. This year hasn't been as bad as last year...
In the build-up to the final of the Carnaval Queen 2013 a contestant has been badly burned by fire. Saida Prieto, pictured below, suffered more than 40% burns to her body after an accident at the Carnival Queen contest. Saida, aged 25, was behind the scenes at the time of the fire and was seen frantically attempting to remove her costume. The costume consisted of huge wings with...
As I said in my previous post about the forest fires in Tenerife, I would report on the latest news. Fire fighters are still battling hard to control the outbreak and although the fires near Vilaflor were reportedly contained last night, just short of 700 metres from the towns football stadium, fires further west are still reported as being out of control. Residents of Guía de Isora have been...
A forest fire has been raging in the hills of Tenerife since yesterday (15th July) afternoon. The fire started at approximately 1500 hours yesterday in the areas of Ifonche, Tijoco Alto and Tejina and was moving westward late last night. Winds have changed overnight and now the fire is spreading eastwards past Adeje on to Arona and towards Villaflor. Thick...
Recently 16 Spanish banks have been downgraded by Moodys, one of the big 3 credit ratings agencies, and both savers and borrowers both in the UK and in Spain are showing concern about what might happen if their particular bank goes bankrupt itself. Let’s start with the UK first and then things will become clear for savings in Spanish Banks. In the UK, there is the Financial Services...
Many people ask what is a Calima, the answer is simple, it is a dust storm carrying sand from the Sahara. In fact I remember years ago when I was a teenager, we lived in the south east of England and the weather people said that we were going to be coated in dust from the Sahara desert. At that time, I thought it was fascinating to know that the sand has travelled all the way from Africa to land on...
Apart from the obvious, go-kart racing, there isn't a great opportunity to see any motorsport in Tenerife. There are the frequent car enthusiast and classic car get-togethers, plenty of Fernando Alonso Formula 1 fans that meet in the bars at Sunday lunchtimes, or maybe a little earlier..., to watch the Formula one racing. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA For motor racing fans that would like to be up...