Unidas se puede wants the council to explore ways of bringing existing holiday rental properties back onto the long-term rental market
The housing situation in La Laguna continues to be a difficult one, and Unidas se puede is proposing a fairly straightforward idea: make better use of the homes that already exist.
The political group will present a motion at this Thursday’s San Cristóbal de La Laguna Town Council meeting calling for the council to look at ways of encouraging owners to move properties currently used as holiday rentals back into the long-term rental market.
The argument is that tackling the housing shortage isn’t only about building more homes. There are already plenty of properties in the municipality, so finding ways to make more of them available to local residents could also help.
More than 1,000 holiday homes highlighted
The proposal follows information from the Municipal Urban Planning Office showing that La Laguna has 1,179 registered holiday homes.
Of these, 1,093 did not have the necessary municipal approval for classified activities.
Unidas se puede is careful to point out that this figure does not establish whether those properties are operating legally or illegally. Instead, the party says it highlights the need to look more closely at how the existing housing stock is being used.
Carolina Castro said the council should introduce measures to encourage owners who no longer want to use their properties as holiday lets to make them available for long-term rental.
The group also wants existing municipal programmes designed to help with this process to be reviewed and strengthened where necessary.
Using the homes already here
The proposal isn’t limited to holiday rentals.
Unidas se puede is also calling for an assessment of current municipal housing programmes, including the resources available and whether they are actually delivering the results needed.
Castro argues that increasing public housing, bringing existing homes onto the market and taking steps to control rental prices all need to form part of a wider response to the housing problem.
There is also a call for better information and support for property owners who might be considering switching from holiday rental to long-term residential use.
The group wants the Canary Islands Government and the Cabildo of Tenerife to work with La Laguna to increase the resources available for affordable housing.
A six-month deadline
The motion proposes that the council publish its findings within six months.
That report would look at the state of holiday rentals in the municipality and assess how effective existing measures have been at bringing homes back into residential use.
Whether it makes a significant difference remains to be seen.
But the basic idea is difficult to argue with. If there are already homes sitting within the municipality that could potentially be used for people who actually live here, it makes sense to at least investigate how many could be brought back onto the long-term rental market.
Housing isn’t going to be solved with one policy or one council motion.
But making better use of what’s already here seems like a sensible place to start.