A Thousand Illegal Tourist Rentals in Fuerteventura

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda has identified 934 illegal vacation rentals on Fuerteventura. A notice sent to the main online platforms requires the immediate removal of these listings from the market.

• The highest concentration is in the municipality of La Oliva (484 units), followed by Antigua (216), Pájara (116), Tuineje (60) and Puerto del Rosario (58).
• Across the entire Canary archipelago, the Ministry has detected 8,698 irregular tourist apartments. These figures were highlighted in a press release from the Socialist Party of Fuerteventura (PSOE).

PSOE Criticises the Canary Islands’ Housing Management

Socialist deputy Manuel Hernández condemned what he described as “political blindness” on the part of the Tourism Minister Jéssica de León, accusing her of inaction regarding the disappearance of homes from the residential market and the resulting price hikes.

“That blindness has aggravated the housing problem in Fuerteventura with the irresponsible management of vacation‑rental regulation,” Hernández said.

He praised the Ministry’s order to delete the listings as “a concrete, effective and real measure,” contrasting it with what he perceives as the regional government’s inertia on housing policy.

“Even such obvious measures as surfacing illegal homes simply by checking their legality have been solved by the Ministry from Madrid,” he added.

Note: The Tourism Department has already launched a new regulation for vacation rentals in the Canary Islands, a framework that owners’ associations have criticised as overly restrictive.

Immediate Impact

The PSOE stresses that the Ministry’s intervention directly affects the availability and price of rental housing on the island, hitting resident families who are increasingly unable to secure affordable homes.

Vacation Housing: A Normative and Dialectic Confrontation

The Ministry’s announcement arrives amid a heated debate over the Law on Tourist Use of Housing, currently being processed in the Canary Parliament. The regional executive estimates that the law could return around 30 % of tourist properties to the residential market.

Simultaneously, the autonomous government’s Tourism Department has announced cooperation with major platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com to purge irregular listings.

The PSOE has long advocated for the removal of illegal tourist apartments as a necessary step to fill the regulatory gap. However, owners’ associations—most notably FAPAVAT—question whether these properties will truly be redirected to residential rentals, warning that the new rules could instead benefit investment funds.