The serious housing situation and crazy rents forces Adeje to take action

The governing body at the Adeje Town Hall, led by Mayor José Miguel Rodríguez Fraga, will propose at the upcoming municipal council meeting to initiate the necessary procedures to declare the municipality as a "stressed market area," under the "Law 12/2023, of May 24, for the right to housing" passed by the Spanish Government.

The process to start this involves, firstly, the full council approving a motion urging the Canary Islands Government to conduct the necessary studies to measure the socio-economic parameters that would allow for the implementation of this stressed zone declaration.

This entails defining, with official statistical data, whether, as presumed, residents of Adeje, in the south of Tenerife, allocate at least 30% of their income to housing or if the purchase or rental prices have increased by more than 3 points above the CPI in the previous five years. There's also the possibility of conducting this study by zones or population centres within the municipality.

Mayor Fraga has acknowledged that "we are aware that there is a serious problem of access to housing for many residents of Adeje, young people from the municipality and the region, and workers who come from other parts of the island or other Islands, and we must do what is in our power to solve it."

He admitted that there are no single solutions and that all will require time to help solve the problem, "that's why this first measure of requesting the declaration of a stressed zone is framed within a more comprehensive and ambitious plan that we are working on and will announce very soon."

This plan that will include the construction of more housing, making land available where possible, and reaching agreements with other administrations and organisations to build housing for workers.

The measure articulates the possibility that, in a stressed area, "tenants reduce rents by 5% in exchange for tax breaks that could amount to 90%. The deduction would be 70% if rented for the first time to young people aged 18 to 35 or if the property has been rehabilitated or improved, the discount will be 60%," as stated in the motion that will be presented to the Adeje council.

Additionally, property owners who sign a contract for at least 10 years will be exempt from price freezes and may increase rent by up to 10% in exchange for extending the duration of the contract.

Adeje has already planned, with the transfer of plots to the Government of the Canary Islands, the construction of 45 housing units in Armeñime and is preparing to make more land available to multiply that quantity.

Over the past three decades, it has already undertaken housing plans that have resulted in the introduction of over a thousand homes to the market for workers. "It's a path we've already travelled and can walk again because we know how to do it, and the first step, alongside this measure we're going to approve, is to make land available to develop such projects," the mayor assured.

With the declaration of a stressed zone, Adeje aims to help limit rental prices, generate assistance for those putting their homes on the market, and process tax breaks and other measures that influence and help lower prices in the coming months, avoiding disproportionate increases every time a rental contract has to be renewed.

The municipality takes on the challenge of being one of the first to implement these measures, with the uncertainty involved in their implementation, but confident that any initiative must contribute to solving an increasingly serious problem.