Law 7/2026 streamlines planning permits and boosts housing in the Canary Islands.

The Official Gazette of the Canary Islands number 163 publishes this Friday, August 14, Law 7/2026, of July 31, for streamlining the processing of planning licenses and boosting housing construction, approved by the Parliament of the Canary Islands and promulgated by President Fernando Clavijo Batlle. The law, published in Section I of general provisions under number 2922, will enter into force on the day following its publication, August 15.

The law is born to address the delay that town councils and management bodies have been dragging in issuing the technical report provided for in article 342.3.a) of Law 4/2017, of July 13, on Land and Protected Natural Areas of the Canary Islands, the procedure that most delays the granting of licenses: actual deadlines far exceed the legal three months and can extend for years. The text develops Decree-Law 3/2025, of April 21, ratified by the Parliament, which agreed to its processing by the urgent procedure on May 13, 2025, and incorporates the adjustments agreed in the Bilateral Cooperation Commission between the State Administration and the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands regarding Decree-Law 1/2024, of February 19, on urgent measures in housing matters. In total, the law modifies eleven regional regulations.

Technical reports under the collaboration regime

The central piece enables urban planning administrations to rely on collaborating entities to issue technical compliance reports when their own resources or inter-administrative collaboration are insufficient. They may be issued by the competent professional associations, the in-house entities, and the urban planning collaboration entities, either at the request of the administration or directly at the request of the interested party; a favorable report excludes the mandatory nature of the municipal technical report on the matters it declares compliant, without the need for subsequent ratification.

Collaborating entities must meet strict requirements:

• Accreditation by the National Accreditation Entity (ENAC) in accordance with the UNE-EN-ISO/IEC 17020 standard (type A entities).
• Professionals with accredited experience of at least ten years in building projects, planning and urban management.
• Civil liability insurance with a minimum amount of 1,000,000 euros.
• Prior notice to the competent department for territorial planning and registration in a registry of declaratory effects.

Town councils retain the power to decide and may reject, by plenary agreement, the submission of reports at the request of the interested party. If the administration does not resort to these routes and the unjustified delay persists, disciplinary or compensatory liability may be claimed.

Measures to boost housing construction

In housing matters, the law complements Decree-Law 1/2024 with a package of measures:

• It regulates incentivized affordable housing, a new category between protected and open-market housing provided for in Article 17 of Law 12/2023, of 24 May, on the Right to Housing: privately owned dwellings for rent, with limits on surface area, duration and maximum rent, urban planning benefits and a qualification procedure.
• It allows changing the use of tertiary land to residential, allocating 30% of the buildable area to protected housing and 70% to incentivized affordable housing.
• It extends by one year the deadline to apply for the rehabilitation permit for unfinished buildings and developments.
• It facilitates the early execution of private land reserved for protected housing, without waiting for the completion of the urbanization works.
• It regulates the procedure for declaring stressed residential market areas.

Industrialized construction and reinforcement in La Palma

The third additional provision instructs the Government of the Canary Islands to incorporate industrialized construction into housing subject to public protection, adapting building parameters, tender conditions and, where applicable, public financing, in order to shorten response times compared with traditional techniques. In parallel, the amendment to Law 4/2024, of 26 July, on protected housing for the economic and social recovery of La Palma after the eruption of Cumbre Vieja allows the direct award of land and buildings suitable for protected housing by the Canary Islands Housing Institute, the Island Council of La Palma and the island’s town councils; the municipalities of El Paso, Los Llanos de Aridane and Tazacorte will have one year to make the necessary land available.

Eleven amended rules

The package reforms Law 4/2017 on Land and its regulations (Decree 182/2018, of 26 December), Decree-Law 1/2024, Law 2/2003, of 30 January, on Housing of the Canary Islands —with a new award regime and social entities providing housing— and Law 6/2025, of 10 December, on the Sustainable Planning of the Tourist Use of Dwellings. Completing the list are Decree-Law 24/2020, Law 4/2022 on Cooperative Societies, Law 4/2021 on European funds, Law 9/2014 on tax measures and Law 6/2022 on climate change.

The law arrives in the midst of a housing emergency in the islands: the preamble links the slowness of proceedings to the violation of the right to decent housing and to the brake on productive investment. With its entry into force this Saturday, developers, cooperatives and town councils gain new tools to shorten deadlines and expand the supply of protected and affordable housing.

Source: Official Gazette of the Canary Islands, No. 163, of August 14, 2026, I. General Provisions, p. 31643 (official reference: 2922).