The announcement by the Granadilla Town Hall to convert 30 partially constructed buildings into public housing, which were mostly left unfinished during the 2008 recession and are currently owned by banks and investment funds, has brought to the forefront a serious problem that has spread throughout the region like a plague over the last few decades: concrete skeletons.
These are unfinished buildings that bear the scars of the construction boom in the South. One of them, the old Chasna building in Costa del Silencio, made headlines a few weeks ago when it was evacuated by court order on March 12th due to the risk of collapse.
There is no official census of unfinished buildings in the South of Tenerife, except for the inventory just conducted by the Granadilla Town Hall, which has counted 30 properties. But it is no secret that the southern area of the island has numerous partially built structures - some sources suggest more than a hundred - especially in areas like San Isidro, El Fraile, or Costa del Silencio, where the traces of business failure in the construction industry are clearly visible.
This high number of unfinished buildings is closely linked to the high expectations of the tourism boom of the 1970s and 1980s. Many of the building projects, some over 40 years old, suffered from the lack of experience of investors, attracted by the allure of tourism growth, which turned out to be a costly venture leaving them bankrupt.
However, other factors also played a role, such as the oil crisis in 1973 and the financial crisis of 2008, as well as legal disputes, heirs' renunciations, or the deaths of developers.
In addition to the negative visual impact they generate, these buildings have become risky places for the homeless, as they are deteriorated concrete structures with no maintenance and subjected to external factors such as wind, rain, sun, and especially the sea, whose proximity is one of the most harmful external elements as the sea air and iron don't get along.
Resuming work on a concrete skeleton is often not the most viable option, given the extra cost of addressing the deterioration that the construction has suffered over time, starting with a meticulous evaluation to determine the real state of the materials. Studies indicate that finishing an abandoned building can be 20% more expensive than building one from scratch.
Urban planning specialists warn that the ground will never be the same after an abandoned work, as the ecosystem is disrupted. They also emphasise that the site of an abandoned building attracts rubble and useless construction materials, sometimes turning into dumps, posing a health hazard.
Some environmental sectors demand the establishment of a specific deadline for the completion of such projects, and if work is not resumed, propose solutions such as demolition or the construction of social housing. The Granadilla Town Hall, the first in the Canary Islands to take a step in that direction, will explore the latter option.
