The administration of Marco Aurelio Pérez Sánchez has activated the asset divestment protocol to address the housing crisis that is crippling Gran Canaria's tourism sector. The San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council has formalized the free transfer of a 2.249,81 square meter plot of land to the public company VISOCAN, delegating to the Canary Islands Government the responsibility for building subsidized housing on land that the municipality itself declares it is unable to manage in the short term.
The operation is based on a technical urban planning report, issued on April 30, 2026, which contains a significant administrative admission: the city council states that this property "is not needed by the local entity nor is it foreseeable that it will be in the next ten years." This declaration of a lack of its own plans for urban land underscores the paralysis in direct housing development by the wealthiest municipality on the island, which is opting for a transfer of assets to the regional government as an emergency measure in the face of public pressure.
The administrative file, identified by reference 2026-000965, was opened on January 19, 2026, following a formal request from Javier Terán Contreras, managing director of Social Housing and Infrastructure of the Canary Islands (VISOCAN). In just four months, the City Council has completed all the bureaucratic procedures to divest itself of property registration number 31.353, located in the Juan Grande area, a strategic location bordering the Juan Grande Primary School and Avenida de los Colegios.
The speed of the process reveals the urgency of a municipal administration that, despite having a budget surplus, prefers free transfer to direct investment. The report from the Comptroller General's Office, dated February 25, 2026, confirmed the absence of outstanding debts on the land, paving the way for the municipal public assets to be transferred to a single-member limited company of regional scope.
The municipal inventory of assets thus loses an unencumbered asset with the legal status of a patrimonial property. The "Demonstrative Memorandum" accompanying the file argues that the benefit to the residents of San Bartolomé de Tirajana justifies the loss of control over the land. However, the definitive transfer of ownership deprives the municipality of a future negotiating tool in a real estate market where urban land has become the scarcest and most coveted resource in southern Gran Canaria.
The municipal architect issued his valuation report on March 3, 2026, certifying that the plot is suitable for Residential Use (VPP). By separating it from a larger development unit (number 12 of the General Urban Development Plan), the City Council is relinquishing direct management of a space that could have helped mitigate the exodus of service sector workers to neighboring municipalities, a trend that threatens the job security of the tourism industry in Maspalomas.
The official announcement now opens a twenty-day public comment period. This timeframe for submitting objections is the last administrative hurdle before the transfer of the plot in Juan Grande becomes irreversible. The document, signed by Pérez Sánchez, invites the public to examine the file on the municipal website, a show of transparency that does not conceal the underlying reality: the city council is relinquishing control over its urban land due to the lack of a municipal public construction company or its own housing plan.
The transfer of these 2.249 square meters to VISOCAN places San Bartolomé de Tirajana in the wake of other Canary Island municipalities that, overwhelmed by urban planning management, are resorting to external entities to fulfill their minimum housing responsibilities. For industry analysts, this operation is an implicit acknowledgment that the management of local assets has become subject to the Canary Islands Government's capacity for implementation, leaving the southern municipality in the role of a mere supplier of real estate raw materials.
