Property in the Canary Islands
If a committee had been set up to design a holiday home paradise, they would probably have invented the Canaries. An archipelago of islands with varying size and geography: sand dunes for some, tropical forests for another, waterfalls for the next, others with all three. A snowcapped mountain to admire, but warm all year down on the beach – rarely too hot and never too cold. Available all year-round, four hours from the UK and with no jet lag! The “fortunate islands” indeed, as the Romans named them.
The British have been buying property in the Canary Islands for decades, and now they are firmly back in fashion. Political unrest in North Africa in early 2015 sent tour operators scurrying back with planeloads of Northern Europeans looking for safe winter sunshine, just as the pound recovered against the euro. Suddenly a lot of us were looking at Spanish property again for warm winters.
You have a choice of seven islands. Tenerife is the largest, with approximately 954,000 people, then Gran Canaria with around 864,000. Lanzarote has roughly 156,000 and then down to Fuerteventura, La Palma, La Gomera and finally El Hierro with 11,600.
Choosing your island is a big part of the fun. Each has characteristics that will appeal to particular personalities, but maybe not the most obvious. Tenerife, for example, has more people, but a small island like La Palma can have a wonderful sense of community. La Gomera is more rural, but Gran Canaria perhaps has more interesting countryside.
All the islands have great opportunities for outdoor activity. Windsurfing is big on Fuerteventura (which means “strong wind”), you can hike through Lanzarote’s lava fields or down Tenerife’s deep gorges. Scuba diving, fishing and anything involving a boat is popular, unsurprisingly, and Tenerife in particular has some world-class golf courses.
The architecture includes cheap and cheerful apartment blocks overlooking the towns and beaches, villas further out of town, but also some lovely South American style villages, and colonial-style houses with wooden balconies and leafy patios.
The islands are a popular location for relocating from overseas. Of the 2.1 million population, one in six was not born here, and many of those are British. While it is warmer and cheaper (and arguably more fun) than a retirement in Britain, many of us have come here to work too, particularly in the tourist trade or serving the expat communities. The Canaries are very welcoming islands.
Where to Buy Property in the Canary Islands
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands and also the most easily accessible with regular flights from most UK airports making Tenerife a plausible option for a second home. If you’re looking for a property with rental potential, Tenerife is the main player. It’s by far the most popular island, generating more enquiries per property, per year that the other islands in the archipelago. But do beware of legislation regarding holiday rentals.
Playa de las Americas is very popular - crammed with bars and restaurants, water sports and a marina for fishing trips and pleasure excursions, the area is a great buzzy place for a holiday. Prices here start at €85,000 for a studio flat with swimming pool, but you might need to pay a little more for comparables - a one-bedroom apartment on a frontline complex might easily cost €300,000, although you can also get two-bedders for that budget in less prime locations.
Also inland and a popular option is Golf del Sur, a community located in the municipality of San Miguel
de Abona 16km by road from Los Cristianos and Playa de las Americas. The resort is dominated by a
championship golf course with vivid indigenous flowers and cacti and other colourful plants, but there are bars, restaurants, shops and the beach. Amarilla Golf and Country Club, its neighbour, has effectively now become part of Golf del Sur also has an 18 hole championship golf course. There is also a new marina area where there are boats and yachts moored with a couple of café bars. You can get a two-bedroom
apartment for around €125,000, but you’ll pay nearer €175,000 for one with a decent sea view.
Twenty minutes drive from the airport is San Eugenio Bajo, a family-friendly area on the edge Playa de las Américas – close to the hedonistic nightspots. Beaches within walking distance include Playa la Pinta beach in Puerto Colon and Fañabe beach. And because of these attractions and the good year-round weather property in the area has a long rental season. Expect to pay around €300,000 for an average family home.
To the south, Las Americas merges with Los Cristianos and contains rows of holiday apartment complexes leading from the seafront. It is these complexes behind the beach that reap the richest rental rewards.
Further up the coast, the popular and increasingly high-end area of Costa Adeje stretches from the resort of Playa Fañabe with its golden beaches through the pretty fishing village of Caleta and north to Playa Paraiso. Fañabe is an upmarket area where you’ll pay north of €200,000 for a good-quality one-bed
apartment. It’s around the Costa Adeje that the island’s more sophisticated image has been cultivated in the last few years with the arrival of the five-star, oceanfront Abama Residences. The luxury properties being sold there have raised the bar not only on Tenerife but also across the Canary Islands. You’ll struggle to find a (large) apartment for much less than €600,000, and villas are mostly over €1m.
Another popular location is going north up to Los Gigantes, a lively resort area at the foot of huge cliffs that is popular with snow-birds and retirees. You can expect to pay around €200,000 for a two-bedroom apartment.
Lanzarote
With regular flights to Lanzarote from most UK airports and a mere 37 miles from one end to the other, almost anywhere in Lanzarote becomes an easy trip for the holiday-home owner. Lanzarote is the most volcanic of the Canaries, but don’t let that put you off, it is also (arguably) the classiest and most expensive. It is beautiful to look at, in an unconventional sort of way, carefully and artistically designed and preserved with tight planning rules. Most of the houses are built in a white cubist form, to a maximum of three storeys.
Painter, sculptor, and architect Cèsar Manrique (1919-1992) convinced the Lanzarote authorities to ensure any new developments were built no taller than two storeys high.
The three main resorts on Lanzarote are all located along the southern coast: Puerto del Carmen, Costa Teguise and Playa Blanca. If you’re looking for a property that you can rent out, then bear in mind that the rentals marketing is firmly focussed on two major resorts, Puerto del Carmen for apartments and Playa Blanca for villas. But, again, seek legal advice with regard to holiday rental licences.
Puerto del Carmen is the biggest resort on the island and is on the southeast coast. It’s home to beaches
such as sandy Playa Grande and Matagorda, which is known for its steady breeze. But there’s also Playa Chica in the old town - a bit quieter and secluded beach with a diving centre popular with snorkellers and scuba divers. To the east there is Playa Pocillos – a huge swathe of sand with windsurf-ready waves.
In the town, fishing boats cluster at the old town dock, El Varadero, whilst the beachfront promenade of Avenida de las Playas - the ‘strip’ - is lined with shops, bars and restaurants. You can find a one-bedroom
apartment for around €80,000 upwards - there’s a great choice of sleek, modern flats around large communal pools on attractive developments if you can stretch to €130,000. For a detached villa look to spend around €350,000 plus.
Playa Blanca is situated on the southern tip of the island with views to Fuerteventura. With its warmer
microclimate and peaceful village centre, it is much loved by families and retirees. It is also the more modern and stylish of the three main resorts, with a marina. For a one-bedroom apartment, expect
to pay from €75,000, up to around €250,000 for a three-bedroom villa.
Costa Teguise is the obvious choice for those wanting to make the most of the island’s nightlife, expect to pay from around €100,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, €170,000 will be a decent budget for a
two-bedroom property or even a small two-bedroom villa.
Fuerteventura
The least commercialized of the main Canary Islands, Fuerteventura also offers the best beaches, with golden sand blown over from the Sahara, great water sports and a growing rentals market. It boasts about 100 miles of tropically-white sand beaches flanked by turquoise waters. Expect to pay as low as €80,000 for a one-bedroom apartment.
The expat communities tend to be concentrated in the holiday resorts of Corralejo and Caleta de Fuste where you’ll find a range of property, extending from studios up to luxurious villas backing on to the island’s two golf courses. Corralejo, in the north is the place to be if making a rental return is your priority, with one-bedroom apartments from €80,000, or two-bed villas can be found for €150,000.
In Caleta de Fuste you can buy a one-bedroom bungalow or apartment for around €100,000; and various
larger options, up to a three-bedroom villa with a private pool for around €475,000.
Gran Canaria
Gran Canaria is very diverse, with small coves, long sandy beaches, British breakfasts and Spanish beach bars in amongst five-star hotels and lovely old fincas amid lemon tree groves. Although this is not Spain’s version of Florida (that would be Tenerife), expats do retire in Gran Canaria, and the healthcare is good. Expats, in the majority, live in the more arid south of the island. You can now pick up an apartment from as little as €100,000.
Las Palmas is the capital of Gran Canaria and the biggest city in the Canary Islands. It’s a thriving metropolis and an important trading hub for both this island and its neighbours. City apartments start from €80,000.
The mega-resort of Maspalomas located on the southern tip of the island is famous for its rolling sand dunes and its unrivalled beaches. You can get a property there from around €100,000.
There’s also Meloneras, which claims a greater concentration of five-star hotels than anywhere else on the island. Head to the mountains above the southern resorts, to Monté Leon for instance, for larger chalets and villas. This is the Beverly Hills of Gran Canaria, where you'll pay over over €500,000 for a townhouse or villa.
Those looking to relocate may do better to look west and south, with the rather more residential Puertos Mogán and Rico and the holiday destination of Arguineguín. Although they are resorts in their own right, they have a greater service infrastructure such as schools and feel less transient than Playa del Inglés. They’re also as competively-priced as the better-known Playa del Inglés.
Buyers Need to Know
Purchase process – as per mainland Spain.
- A 5 per cent Impuesto General Indirecto Canario (IGIC) Canary Island tax not VAT is applied to new-build properties, whereas resale properties are taxed at 6.5 per cent (ITP).
Rentals: the authorities in the Canaries have been clamping down on holiday rental rules for several years: seek local legal advice at the time of your search if you hope to rent out your home.
