The management of tourist accommodations in Gran Canaria is currently experiencing a period of intense political and administrative tension. While the Gran Canaria Tourism Board (controlled by the PSOE party) continues its policy of oversight and enforcement, the Socialist Parliamentary Group has taken action in the Canary Islands Parliament by submitting a proposed law aimed at neutralizing the scope of these procedures. The head of the Gran Canaria Tourism Board, Carlos Álamo, has been nominated as the party's candidate for Mayor of San Bartolomé de Tirajana in 2027.
The controversy, which affects thousands of residents in southern Gran Canaria, has become a central issue in the regional political debate. While the government defends the current regulations as necessary to protect the quality of the tourism model, the Socialist opposition is using this proposed law to highlight the social conflict and increase the demand for reconciling the development of the sector with the right to primary residence in areas with the highest tourist demand.
The Socialist initiative aims to amend the Law on Tourism Renewal and Modernization and the Law on Sustainable Planning of Tourist Use of Housing. The stated objective, according to PSOE spokesperson Sebastián Franquis, is to "put an end to the automatic sanctions" affecting owners who legally reside in their homes. The proposal stipulates that, when urban planning permits residential use, sanctioning proceedings should be halted, those that are not yet final should be archived, and outstanding fines should be waived, thus completely reversing the current strategy.
This move puts the Canary Coalition and People's Party government in a difficult position. The Socialists denounce that the rigid interpretation of the "unit of exploitation"—the regulation that justifies the current sanctions—is being used to evict residents from their homes under a logic that, according to the PSOE, ignores the social reality of thousands of families.
For its part, the Platform of Those Affected by the Tourism Law has supported the measure, emphasizing that many of these owners acquired their properties when there were no restrictions on residential use. From this perspective, the PSOE's intervention is presented as a way to provide legal certainty, in the face of an administration that, through its tourism agencies, maintains its punitive approach in an attempt to exclusively protect the use of tourist complexes for accommodation.
