Property prices in the Canary Islands show no signs of slowing, with market conditions causing what real estate experts have dubbed the “perfect storm”.
A shortage of supply coupled with surging demand has seen prices surge by 12% in Spain generally but that rise is even higher in the Canaries, according to the region’s statistics office (ISTAC).
Prices rose in the islands by a whopping 16% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, almost three times the EU average of 5.7% recorded by Eurostat. The early indications are that even that increase is going to be bettered in the new figures for the second quarter, with online property sales platform Idealista suggesting that the increase could be as much as 18.4% compared to the end of June 2024.
House purchases here continue to be heavily conditioned by demand from foreign buyers, particularly Germans, Britons and Scandinavians wanting a second home in the Canaries. According to data from Spain’s College of Property Registrars, almost one third of purchases in recent times have been made by foreigners, twice the proportion recorded for Spain as a whole.
However, prices are also surging due to the record number of holidaymakers visiting the Canaries, which has led to a substantial rise in the number of acquisitions for short-term lets via platforms such as Airbnb, which are proving to be lucrative investments at present and have been blamed for the spiralling rentals also seen in the islands of late.
As criticism continues to grow that locals – first-time buyers in particular – are being priced out of the market, the European Union urged Spain in June to take positive action such as releasing more public land for building affordable housing to stem the crisis caused by the perfect storm of conditions.
The rise in property prices now extends to 17 quarters in a row, prompting fears in some quarters that a bubble such as that which burst in late 2007 may be forming, although official sources insist that the objective economic data do not suggest this for the moment.
