Panic in the Canary Islands as holiday lets soar despite growing overtourism protests

The Canary Islands is seeing a huge surge in the number of apartments rented out to tourists, despite growing protests over holiday rentals by local communities.

Protests against mass tourism have swept the Canary Islands in recent weeks and months, as locals vent their anger at the ever-growing tide of visitors.

One of the biggest complaints of protesters is the proliferation of holiday rental apartments.

Locals argue that they are being effectively priced out of the property market, as investors snap up apartments to rent out to tourists.

New data collected by the Canary Islands Institute of Statistics (ISTAC) would appear to back up the claims of the protesters.

According to the data, ten thousand more properties have been registered as holiday rentals since the pandemic of 2019.

As of May 2024, the region had 44,613 registered holiday rental properties, a substantial increase from the 35,611 units in May 2019.

This increase has corresponded with a significant rise in declared revenue, with income climbing from €33.4 million (£28.6m) in May 2019 to €64.5 million (£55.2m) in May 2024.

Tenerife has seen the biggest expansion with some 18,140 holiday rentals available in May this year.

The rental properties generated over €25 million (£21.4m) in revenue for their owners.

Tenerife saw a huge protest against mass tourism in April, which attracted tens of thousands of people.

One was Lydia Morales, a teacher, who told the Express that her wages were barely enough to pay her rent.

"The benefits of tourism are only felt by a small number of people," she said.

"Even as a teacher, I struggle to afford rent because it is too expensive.

"The priority of the politicians is still creating more construction of towers for tourism complexes.

"The priorities of the citizens of the country are left behind, we don’t have a hospital in the south of the island the infrastructure is collapsing because there is so much traffic."