Lola García, president of the Fuerteventura Island Council, has stressed the urgency of rehabilitating existing, unfinished constructions as a priority to increase housing availability on the island, before developing new land. This proposal has been presented to the Minister of Public Works, Housing, and Mobility of the Canary Islands Government, Pablo Rodríguez.
During the meeting, García handed the minister a document prepared jointly by the Island Council and the six municipalities of Fuerteventura. This report details unfinished buildings that are suitable for recovery and designation as residential properties.
The island's president has requested the necessary funding from the Canary Islands Government for the rehabilitation and utilization of these properties, as well as the establishment of collaborative frameworks to act on those deemed technically and legally viable. García stated: «We have long argued that, before occupying more land, we must utilize what is already built. We have done this work together with the municipalities, and today we present it to the Canary Islands Government to seek the resources needed to recover these buildings and convert them into homes».
The presented document facilitates a preliminary identification of potential properties and allows for a coordinated analysis between administrations regarding their status and real intervention possibilities. García explained the necessity of acting on these constructions: «We have a real need for housing and, at the same time, limited territory. If we have buildings that already occupy land and can be recovered for residential use, we must work on those possibilities first».
For his part, Minister Pablo Rodríguez expressed the Canary Islands Government's willingness to coordinate these actions and announced the creation of specific financing lines in the 2027 budgets. Rodríguez highlighted the benefits of this strategy, such as reducing construction timelines and costs by up to 40%, describing it as a way to generate housing that is «more sustainable, viable, less invasive, and more profitable».
The regional executive's support will now enable joint work on the necessary economic, administrative, and legal instruments to recover viable buildings and transform them into new homes.
This initiative is part of Fuerteventura's insular housing strategy, which mobilizes over 53 million euros. This strategy combines the construction of new protected housing (176 units planned), the rehabilitation of the existing residential stock (over 800 homes), and the recovery of unfinished buildings.
The recovery of unfinished constructions allows for the utilization of already occupied land, preventing the consumption of new territory and addressing buildings that may negatively impact the landscape. Lola García concluded: «There is no single solution to the housing problem. We must continue promoting public housing, rehabilitating existing stock, and recovering everything that is viable. But on an island with limited territory, prioritizing the use of what is already built must be a priority».
