Jessica de León: “We’ll Launch Mobile Offices and Won’t Leave Vacation‑Rental Owners in the Lurch”
The Canary Islands Government’s Minister of Tourism and Employment, Jessica de León, urges owners to report classified activity to their municipalities before the law takes effect. She also accuses the PSOE of electoralism and points out that “they have decided that the 2027 elections will be decided in Gran Canaria” to divert the debate toward tourist apartments—a segment already regulated by another law. She denounced the modus operandi of ASCAV, “threatening with an unknown number of thousands of lost votes, and all politicians have succumbed to this threat.”
Please report the classified activity
The Canary Islands’ Minister of Tourism, Jessica de León, announced the first law that will regulate the tourist use of homes across the archipelago and that will come into force as soon as it is published in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands.
The complex, long‑awaited and controversial regulation faces political tension and strong opposition from parts of the sector, but de León defends it as an act of responsibility and defence of the general interest of more than 2.1 million Canary Islanders, as she highlighted in an interview on La Voz de Fuerteventura on Radio Insular.
While the law awaits publication, de León repeatedly urges vacation‑home owners throughout the islands to “please report the classified activity to your town halls.”
She explained that owners must submit a prior communication of the classified activity and amend their responsible declaration. Those who fail to do so before the law takes effect, she warns, “will not be able to benefit from the first transitory provision, which allows them to continue operating the home for life or until they die or decide to cease the activity.”
De León stresses that this procedure does not originate with the new law; it has been mandatory since Decree 113/2015 and reinforced by rulings of the Supreme Court and the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.
She reminded that the Ministry has been “for two years warning that this procedure was necessary.” Consequently, the government proposed an in‑voce amendment to extend the licensing deadline by one year after the law’s approval, but the amendment was not accepted.
“The Parliament decided, for the first time, not to admit amendments that would have given owners a breathing‑room of one year to submit classified activities, allowing them to operate for at least five years, possibly ten,” she lamented.
Without debate, there is no extension, and the deadline will expire when the law comes into force.
Tourist apartments under another law
De León also acknowledged that the parliamentary process reveals a difficult political climate and was especially critical of the PSOE, from which she “never received a single contribution, opinion or feedback.” She accused the party of steering the debate toward tourist apartments even though “this law does not regulate tourist apartments,” noting that that activity is already covered by Law 2/2012.
In her view, the PSOE “centered its entire political strategy on this law in Gran Canaria,” a move conditioned by the 2027 elections. She praised Nueva Canarias, “the only party that showed interest in sitting with us and raising legal questions.”
Throughout the process, the Minister has faced a highly belligerent Canary Association of Vacation Housing (ASCAV). De León stated unequivocally that “the modus operandi of ASCAV is to threaten with an unknown number of thousands of lost votes, and all politicians have succumbed to that threat.”
“The Parliament decided, for the first time, not to admit amendments that would have given owners a breathing‑room of one year to submit classified activities, allowing them to operate for at least five years.”
She added that those pressures have also targeted her Ministry. “They thought that with that threat they could force us to bypass the law in this department.” Nevertheless, she affirmed that the general interest has prevailed.
“I sincerely believe the Canary Islands needed to bring order to this activity; I sincerely think the islands need limits on tourism operations in all accommodations, not only vacation homes. I sincerely think illegal activity must be inspected, and that is what we have done from this Ministry.”
Vacation‑home sector
Looking ahead, the minister announced the opening of itinerant assistance offices so owners can continue their activity with the guarantee that the Autonomous Community is advising them.
These offices will not open before the law’s publication, because, as she explained, “engineers, technicians, architects and building inspectors know exactly what must be done.”
De León emphasized that after the law’s approval, public administrations still have pending work:
“Public administrations have to do the work we have not done in ten years,” she said, referring to tasks ranging from planning to cleaning up the registry, which currently mixes apartments, homes and “rooms of tools” (a local term for small rental units).
Keywords: PSOE, tourism, Canary Islands, vacation homes, ASCAV