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Stressed Housing Areas: How Will They Affect Your Property in Fuerteventura?

If a stressed residential market area is declared, Law 6/2025 automatically suspends new holiday rental homes there. Who declares it, on what criteria, what happens to homes already operating and where Fuerteventura stands.

Article updated on 17 October 2026. We published it in January 2025, when the Canary Islands law was still a draft. We have rewritten it using Law 6/2025, in force since 13 December 2025, and the current state of declarations in the Canary Islands.

What is a stressed area?

A stressed residential market area (zona de mercado residencial tensionado) is an area, a municipality or part of one, where there is a particular risk that people cannot access housing at a reasonable price.

The concept comes from the national Law 12/2023 on the right to housing. It is not declared by the town hall: it is declared by the housing authority, which in the Canary Islands is the Canary Islands Government through the Canary Islands Housing Institute. The town hall can request it.

Criteria for declaring one

Law 12/2023 allows a stressed area to be declared when at least one of these conditions is met:

  • Excessive burden: the average mortgage or rent burden, plus basic expenses and utilities, exceeds 30 % of the average household income in the area.
  • Price rise: the purchase or rental price has grown in the previous five years at least 3 points above the CPI of the autonomous region.

The declaration must be preceded by a supporting report and a public consultation period. It lasts 3 years and can be extended year by year if the conditions persist.

What it means for holiday rental homes in the Canary Islands

Law 6/2025 links stressed areas directly to holiday rental homes:

  • Automatic suspension: declaring a stressed area automatically suspends the authorisation of new holiday rental homes in that area while it is in force.
  • Planning: town halls cannot allow tourist use in areas declared stressed, nor in those whose declaration they have requested.
  • Age: in those areas the minimum age of 10 years that the law requires of homes cannot be reduced.
  • Renewal: declaraciones responsables under the new regime last 5 years. To renew them, the area must not be declared stressed.

What if my holiday rental home is already operating?

Homes authorised before the law, under Decree 113/2015, follow their transitional regime, which is not suspended by the declaration:

  • If you are the owner and the holder of the declaración responsable, you can apply for consolidated tourist use, which does not expire, until 13 December 2030.
  • If not, you have 5 years, extendable.

In any case, if you did not file the prior notification of classified activity, you must do so before 31 July 2027. We explain it in this article.

Tourist authorisation is not transferred with the sale of the home. If you buy a home with holiday renting in mind, first check with the town hall whether the area allows tourist use and whether its declaration as a stressed area has been requested.

Where does Fuerteventura stand?

  • As of this update, no municipality in Fuerteventura has been declared a stressed area, and we know of no pending request.
  • Across the Canary Islands, the only file under way is Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The Canary Islands Government put it out to public consultation between 15 October and 12 November 2026.

The absence of a stressed area does not mean you can open a new holiday rental home. Under Law 6/2025, a new holiday rental home fits only where municipal planning expressly allows it, reserving at least 90 % of the housing for residential use. Until the island's town halls approve that regulation, new registrations are, in practice, very limited.

Because of the concentration of holiday rental homes, the areas most debated are those of La Oliva (Corralejo, El Cotillo, Lajares). According to the latest INE data published in August 2026, that municipality holds 3,979 of the island's 7,116 holiday rental homes.

What we recommend

  • If you already have a holiday rental home: secure your current position with the prior notification of classified activity and, where it applies, consolidated use. That is what protects you, with or without a stressed area.
  • If you want to convert a home: ask the town hall for the planning certificate (cédula urbanística) to find out whether planning allows tourist use, and check the home is more than 10 years old.
  • If you are going to buy: do not assume you will be able to rent it as a holiday home. Ask for a planning report and consider a conditional clause in the contract.

Can we help?

At FuerteProyecto we analyse the planning and technical situation of your home and prepare the technical report and the energy certificate the regulations require.

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