Tag: Property

Latest Gran Canaria News, Views & Sunshine

The Canary Guide Día de Canarias #WeekendTips 26-28 May 2023

 
What an interesting last weekend of May ahead. Weather predictions are showing some rain showers are likely across Gran Canaria. This extended #WeekendTips covers up to Tuesday, when all things Canarian are celebrated on the Día de Canarias. There’ll be some gorgeous Patron Saints’ festivities happening in San Fernando de Maspalomas as well as in Valleseco.

Fun Fact:
Valleseco literally means “dry valley” in Spanish, but is actually one of the wettest municipalities Gran Canaria. Nestling between the famous fresh water sources of Firgas & Teror, half way up the island’s mountainous northern slopes, this area is well known for its apple growers, cider and its weekly market

Six weeks since the unexplained disappearance of Anna-Karin on Gran Canaria

The authorities on Gran Canaria have been engaged in a rigorous search for Swedish tourist Anna-Karin Bengtsson, who went missing in the south of Gran Canaria around April 9. Her unexplained disappearance has caused her family much distress, with no clues to her whereabouts having emerged in the six weeks since they first realised her phone was no longer functioning.

The Canary Guide #WeekendTips 19-21 May 2023

 

An exciting May weekend ahead with abundant events and festivities taking place all around Gran Canaria. There are Patron Saints’ festivities for Motor Grande, in Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria, and in El Tablero in the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana and up in the mountains of Artenara. There is also a two day lively exhibition event in Meloneras boulevard and the Rally Gran Canaria is held this Friday and Saturday.

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Gran Canaria tourist accommodation worth 100 million euros now on sale

A raft of Gran Canaria tourist accommodation complexes, hotels and apartments, have recently gone on sale, in a further measure of the economic fallout from what is being called the “worst tourist crisis in the Archipelago” ever experienced. Losses of up to 83% of expected occupancy, air connections running at less than 40% compared to a year ago and an expected total arrivals to The Canary Islands of less than five million tourists this year, less than a million on Gran Canaria, compared to the more than 15 million to visit the archipelago in 2019, of whom 4.5 million visited Gran Canaria, along with many other associated issues, have all brought to bear terrible pressure on companies that survive and project their future business based on secure bookings, and which so far this year have been impossible to predict or count on.  Accommodation complexes are going up for sale on Gran Canaria, with tourist hotels and apartments valued at nearly one hundred million euros already on offer on property portal Idealista alone, writes La Provincia.
A hotel in Playa del Inglés is so far the most expensive on offer, at €31 million very near the beach. The property, according to the advertisement, is renovated and has all necessary facilities, with 185 rooms, all with balconies and sea views, distributed over six floors within a 11,600-square-meter plot. The cheapest currently on offer is just €850,000 and in the area known as Sonnenland. It is a complex of five duplex units, located on a plot of 506 square meters which includes a swimming pool. Each of the units has two bedrooms, living room, kitchen, bathroom and terrace.
On offer right now are mainly apartment complexes priced at ranges between €1,466 and €6,650 per square meter, averaging just under €3,000 per m2.
In Playa del Inglés, there is what is described as a small five-star accommodation, still under construction, that has capacity for six rooms, to which one more could be added in the future, being offered for €1.8 million with the project permissions and the license in place.  Where as just over €11 million will buy you a 4-star hotel in Playa del Ingles, with 100 rooms, reception, swimming pools and gardens.
There is also one available in the capital Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, near Santa Catalina park and Las Canteras beach, a hotel building project with seven floors and capacity for 40 rooms, on sale for €2.5 million. Though the building is currently closed and ready for renovation.

A drop in occupancy of 83%
The pandemic state of emergency started on March 14 resulting in zero tourism on the Islands. The sector has been struggling to recover ever since, with no clear end in sight due to repeated travel restrictions and resurgences in infections in various countries over the last eight months leaving many businesses closed.
The future for the sector is far from certain, with many predicting a deepening of the crisis expected to last well into 2021 and beyond as tourists, tour operators, airlines, hotels and other businesses struggle to adapt to a post pandemic world where the best method of keeping infections in check remains avoiding unnecessary travel, keeping away from groups and focus on social distance and moving forward slowly and with caution while trying to keep an unseen enemy at bay, and stopping infection rates from overwhelming health services while trying to learn to keep businesses open remotely and locally.  We can expect the entry of more tourist properties to the sales market over the coming weeks and months.

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Puerto Rico tourist complex prohibits new owner from accessing apartment for residential use, citing Tourism Rental Law

Residents who ignore local politics, and don’t care for warnings about changes to new laws should probably take note of this latest turn in the Tourism Rental Property Law saga, in Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria…

A Dutch woman has apparently been refused entry to her new apartment in a designated tourism complex located in Puerto Rico, in the southern Gran Canaria municipality of Mogán, which she bought with her partner at the end of February, because, according to the tourism complex accommodation operator, the law prohibits the residential use of such apartments in the area. The owner flew from Holland last Friday to find the locks of her own flat changed, and has filed a complaint with the Guardia Civil.
She had travelled with a friend to Gran Canaria to decorate the property having bought it just a month ago from a private individual, of German nationality, who had been living in the apartment for more than thirty years without ever having been required to include the property in the tourism rental scheme operated at the complex by a licensed company dealing with tourism accommodation management. She told Guardia Civil officers in Puerto Rico, who took her statement, that after purchasing the property, she had returned to her country on March 5, leaving her belongings inside the flat.
Ten days after leaving the island, the management of the complex began to send the new owners a series of emails warning them that, despite having purchased the apartment, they could not make use of it as a result of a change to the property laws, referring to the controversial 2013 Tourism Law.
This law allows, in one of its most criticised provisions, for the covert expropriation of a property, which is not being used in the correctly licensed manner, through a mechanism known as “substitution of the dissident owner”. It is a formula that can be activated by a vote and simple majority in complexes governed by the “Horizontal Property Law”. It can theoretically be used, among other reasons, on the basis of a property owner refusing to cede the “exploitation of housing” to a single management organisation, leading to potential fines and then in extreme circumstances, another individual or company may choose to take over the apartment or bungalow and agree a rental price for its correct exploitation.
The Land Law, which caused uproar in 2015 when the town council who administrate nearby Maspalomas and Playa del Inglés tried to implement the provisions in local ordinance, had to be amended to protect all those already resident in these properties before January 1, 2017, but anyone who inherited one or bought it later is still completely exposed to the questionable process of “owner substitution”.
In the case of the Dutch couple, the threat of problems was made very real on Friday night, when the woman tried to access her apartment and found the locks changed. After a call to the director of the complex, the reception informed them using the house as a residential property would be impossible. “It belongs to the complex and must be in operation,” they were allegedly told.
A representative from the real estate agency involved in the sale of the property was also unsuccessful in trying to affect the situation. Workers at the complex claimed they were simply following strict orders from the general manager and said that the only solution they could offer was to relocate the woman and her friend to another apartment for that night, which is what happened.
The owner says that at no time was she informed by the management of the complex following the purchase that she was required to put the apartment in to tourism operation and that they even received congratulatory mails, having been regular visitors for many years. The owners passed a letter from the complex managers, which was handed to them, to the Guardia Civil adding that this situation had now generated great anxiety for them.
“We understand that it is a difficult situation for you and your wife (…) but the apartments can not be used as an address. Through email correspondence we have made clear the legal status of the hotel: residential use is not allowed. There are other owners who want to live in the hotel, but they can not, it is legally designated as tourist accommodation”, explained a letter from the complex manager in which he lamented the” uncomfortable situation “that this had generated.
According to the now infamous Platform of Affected by the Tourist Law (PALT), who were the community group who first raised warnings of these potential problems back in 2015 leading to more than 150,000 written objections, the management of this complex has offered the apartment owners just €250 a month to operate their properties as tourist rentals.
The incident with this owner occurred on the same day others who have been affected demonstrated in front of the headquarters of the Presidency of the regional government in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to defend the right to private property in tourist areas and the use and/or exploitation of individual apartments and bungalows, as per the wishes of the owners.

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The Canary Guide

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22 year old detained for property rental scams in Las Palmas

Policia Nacional last week detained a 22-year-old man, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, with the initials KJVO, alleged to be perpetrator of four scams related to holiday rental homes. The man apparently has 35 prior records for similar crimes committed on Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Lanzarote, La Palma and El Hierro.
The individual rented real estate for small periods of time and once in possession of the keys he sub-leased them to third parties for a long term contract, managing to collect up to €3,900 in advance payments.
The investigation began after a complaint from three injured parties, the proprietor and tenants of a vacation rental property located in the capital of Gran Canaria, who had been scammed by an individual who passed himself off as the owner.
The investigators determined that the 22-year-old had rented the aforementioned property from the real owner then taken pictures of the interior and advertised it “for rent” by posing as the person responsible for it, and then subletting to third parties for a prolonged stay, from whom he collected considerable sums of money in advance.
In addition, agents uncovered two more cases similar to this one, perpetrated by the same individual with homes located in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Maspalomas, where he managed to collect at least €3,900 from one of his victims.
Investigators were able to verify that the same suspect already has 35 arrests mainly for fraud committed in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Telde, San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Tias, Costa Teguise, Puerto de la Cruz, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, La Laguna, Santa Cruz de La Palma and Valverde.
The individual was located and detained in a central street in the capital of Gran Canaria, as the alleged perpetrator of four scams, a theft and a crime against traffic safety, since at the time of his arrest he was driving a vehicle without the corresponding permission. In the security search, €1,250 was recovered.
With a mandatory court order, the police conducted a home search, at a pension in Las Palmas, where a large amount of personal and banking documentation was found, as well as various private lease contracts in which he was listed as a landlord.
The investigation remains open until other criminal acts of a similar nature, in which the detainee is suspected to have been involved, are confirmed.
Finally, when the corresponding police report was issued, the detainee was placed at the disposal of the competent Judicial Authority, who ordered his provisional imprisonment.

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