When the crisis is a strategy of power: housing, immigration and tourism in Tenerife
by Antonio Tejeda Encinas Chairman PCDD-Citizen Participation, Democracy and Law President Euro American Committee on Digital Law -CEA Digital Law CEO Meta Channel Corporation
The housing crisis in Tenerife is not an unexpected phenomenon or a natural consequence of market evolution. It is the result of a political management that has prioritized real estate speculation, uncontrolled tourism and the accumulation of assets in private hands. What many identify as a crisis is, in fact, a model of territorial administration based on business profit and not on the quality of life of the population.
In his analysis of media manipulation, Noam Chomsky outlined a key strategy: problem-reaction-solution. First, a problem is fostered, then public outrage is directed towards secondary causes, and finally, a solution is offered that does not alter the status quo. In the Canary Islands, this mechanism is evident: tourism raises the cost of living, wages are not adjusted and housing becomes an inaccessible luxury. However, instead of addressing structural causes, political discourse focuses on peripheral problems, ensuring that the social response remains within the desired margins.
The script of the problem: empty housing and speculation
The official account suggests that the housing crisis is due to a “balance between supply and demand.” That is, there are more people wanting housing than available housing. But the reality contradicts this premise:
63.7% of the Canary Islands households do not own their home, the lowest rate in Spain.
In Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the rental of a room in the center exceeds 1,300€/month, 29.4% more than in 2020.
70% of tourist licenses in Tenerife are concentrated in five southern municipalities, where residential rentals have increased by more than 60% in the last five years.
The problem is not the lack of soil, or overpopulation, or even the growth of demand. The problem is that housing has become a financial asset, managed according to profitability and not social need. It is a market designed to favor the accumulation of properties, facilitating access to investors while the life of the local population is expensive.
But this is where the second act of the script comes in: divert attention.
Immigration as a smokescreen
Whenever social unrest grows, the debate is reoriented towards immigration. The mechanism is simple: linking homelessness or the deterioration of public services with the arrival of migrant populations, despite the fact that the data contradict that relationship.
In 2024, 46,000 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands, but by 2025 arrivals had decreased 43.3%. Still, the discourse of the “immigrant enlargement” was still at the forefront of the political debate.
Fifteen per cent of the Canarian population is foreign, but their distribution is not uniform: in sectors such as agriculture, 80 per cent of workers are migrants due to low wages and precarious working conditions.
The Canary Islands needs 20,000 foreign workers for precarious jobs, while maintaining an unemployment rate of 160,000.
In this context, demonstrations have emerged from groups that question the arrival of more immigrants while the local population cannot access a home. The slogan is clear: “How are we going to continue receiving migrants if there are no houses or jobs?” The outrage is legitimate, but it is aimed at the wrong goal.
Social unrest is not born of immigration, but of an economic model that has made housing more expensive, has precarious employment and has given the management of the territory to private interests. However, instead of pointing out the real responsibility — the real estate sector, tourism policies and the lack of state regulation — frustration is channeled towards migrants. It is the perfect reflection of the problem-reaction-solution described by Chomsky: generate discomfort, orient anger towards an external enemy and offer cosmetic solutions that do not alter the bottom of the problem.
Tourism and resource crisis: the hidden equation
While housing is becoming expensive and the labour market is degrading, another key factor in this equation goes unnoticed: the overexploitation of resources in terms of mass tourism.
70% of the water in southern Tenerife is used for hotels and golf courses, while aquifers are at critical levels.
Despite the water crisis, Tenerife will receive 2.9 million tourists in 2025, 9.4% more than in 2024. This growth reflects a paradox: while resources are depleted, the model that predates them is intensified.
According to the University of La Laguna (2025), 80% of tourism profits are outsourced to foreign suppliers, mainly hotel chains and investment funds.
The official account insists that tourism “sustains the Canary economy”, but omits that profits are concentrated in the hands of a few while costs are socialized. The resource crisis is not a consequence of population growth, but of an unequal distribution of resources according to private interests.
Finally: crisis as a management model
To talk about crisis means to assume that there is a problem that needs to be solved. But in this case, the supposed crisis is not a failure of the system, but its normal functioning. Real estate speculation, labor exploitation and the exhaustion of resources are not side effects of a failed model, but the basis of its operationality.
The key to the problem is not immigration, landlessness, or overpopulation. It is in an economic and political structure that makes housing a speculative asset, externalizes the benefits of tourism and maintains job insecurity as a norm.
The debate will continue to revolve around surface solutions — building more homes, attracting investment, regulating rent — without addressing the real problem: who controls the territory and for what purpose.
While countries like Austria protect access to housing with 60% public offer, the Canary Islands remains anchored to a model where 70% of tourist licenses benefit five municipalities.
The question is not how long this model can be sustained, but how long the Canary Islands society will accept this game without questioning its rules.
