The municipality has approved a new inspection and control plan, with more than 90% of registered holiday homes currently lacking the municipal paperwork required to operate legally
La Laguna is taking a much closer look at its holiday rental market.
The San Cristóbal de La Laguna Town Hall has approved a new Municipal Verification and Control Plan for Holiday Homes, making it one of the first municipalities in the Canary Islands to complete the process under the new Law 6/2025, which regulates the sustainable use of housing for tourism in the Canary Islands.
The figures behind the plan are quite striking.
According to an analysis carried out by the Urban Planning Department using data from the Canary Islands Government, 1,179 holiday homes are currently registered in La Laguna’s General Tourism Register.
Of these, 1,093 properties, or 92.7%, do not have the required prior municipal notification for classified activities.
Only 86 properties have started or completed the relevant municipal procedure.
📅 Date: August 2026
📍 Area: San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife
🏠 Holiday homes registered: 1,179
⚠️ Without municipal notification: 1,093
What happens to the 1,093 properties?
The new plan sets out several stages for dealing with the situation.
The first involves sending the files relating to the 1,093 properties without the necessary municipal title to the Cabildo de Tenerife.
The Cabildo will then process the cancellation of their tourist declaration where the required documentation is considered an essential omission.
If that happens, the properties would lose their tourist registration number and would no longer be legally permitted to advertise as holiday rentals on digital platforms.
The plan then moves on to inspections and the resolution of existing applications.
Properties that continue operating without the necessary authorisation will also be subject to individual inspections, with priority given to homes that have received neighbour complaints, belong to large property owners or present potential safety risks.
Only 86 homes have started the process
Of the 86 properties that have begun the municipal procedure, 41 already have a favourable report.
A further 14 are waiting for an initial inspection, while 31 are currently correcting or completing documentation.
So the issue isn’t simply about shutting down holiday rentals.
There is also a sizeable administrative backlog to work through.
Holiday rentals represent 1.57% of La Laguna’s housing
The 1,179 registered holiday homes represent around 1.57% of La Laguna’s approximately 75,000 homes.
The new regional legislation establishes a maximum threshold of 10%, although La Laguna says it intends to introduce tighter quantitative limits through the new General Urban Development Plan (PGO).
The municipality says those limits will take into account the social, geographical and heritage characteristics of different parts of La Laguna.
The aim is to clean up the register
Mayor Luis Yeray Gutiérrez said the new plan should help bring greater order and legal certainty to an area that has generated growing social concern.
The council has also called on the Canary Islands Government to provide greater technical support and resources, arguing that municipalities should not be left to carry the entire burden of inspecting holiday rental properties.
Housing Councillor Adolfo Cordobés said the objective is to clean up the existing register, tackle clandestine activity and protect access to residential housing.
For anyone operating a holiday rental in La Laguna, the message is fairly straightforward.
Being listed on the tourist register does not necessarily mean everything is in order at municipal level. The council is now going through the paperwork, and quite a few properties appear to have some explaining to do.