Tijarafe announces grants to rehabilitate rural housing and curb depopulation

The Tijarafe City Council has approved and published the regulatory bases and the call for grants to promote the rehabilitation of privately owned housing, within the framework of the program to combat depopulation in rural areas of the Canary Islands Housing Plan 2020-2025. The announcement, with registration number 1724664, is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife number 101, dated August 24, 2026, on page 24025.

The call was approved by agreement of the Local Government Board in an ordinary session on August 11, 2026. Interested parties will have a period of twenty business days, counting from the day following the insertion of the announcement in the gazette, to submit their applications.

Purpose and Financing

The purpose of this line of action is to ensure that private housing in rural environments is rehabilitated or adapted to minimum habitability conditions, energy consumption savings, and the improvement of structural elements, as well as the works necessary for its proper maintenance. With this, it is intended to help encourage permanence or the change of residence toward the rural areas of the municipality.

The maximum amount allocated to finance this call amounts to 98,397.59 euros, distributed as follows:

• 63,397.59 euros provided by the Canary Islands Housing Institute.
• 35,000.00 euros provided by the Tijarafe City Council.

The granting of funds is subject to the existence of adequate and sufficient credit at the time of the resolution, and will be processed under a competitive concurrence regime through pro-rating among all applications that meet the requirements, up to the limit of the available credit.

Beneficiaries and Requirements

Beneficiaries may be owners or co-owners of a dwelling located in the municipality of Tijarafe, as well as representatives of homeowners’ associations in the case of collective residential typology buildings. Among the required conditions are:

• To be registered on the census (empadronados) and effectively reside in the municipality, or prove the commitment to register on the census to designate the dwelling as a habitual and permanent home (or lease it to a third party) within two months from the completion of the works.
• That the dwelling constitutes the habitual and permanent residence of the applicant’s family unit.
• That the dwelling requires the execution of any of the rehabilitation works contemplated in the bases.
• That the members of the coexistence unit are not owners of another dwelling, except for the provided exceptions.
• That the dwelling and the works comply with the applicable urban planning regulations.

Eligible Works and Submission

The grants cover, among other actions, the renovation of wet rooms (kitchens, bathrooms, and toilets), low-voltage interior electrical installations, plumbing and sanitation installations, conservation works for roofs, terraces, facades, and party walls, the reinforcement or partial replacement of structural elements, and accessibility works. Subsidizable professional fees are limited to 7.5% of the cost of the works, and the subsidizable budget will not include household appliances.

Applications shall be submitted to the General Registry of the Tijarafe City Council, in person or through the electronic office, or at any of the locations provided for in Article 16.4 of Law 39/2015, of October 1, on the Common Administrative Procedure. The managing body is the Tijarafe City Council itself, which may collect the necessary documentation to verify the data in the applications.

The call for applications is part of a broader municipal strategy to stabilize the population in rural areas, complementing other local support lines. For the homeowners of Tijarafe, this aid represents a concrete opportunity to adapt their homes to decent conditions of habitability and energy efficiency, contributing to curbing the loss of residents in the rural areas of the island of La Palma.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, number 101, August 24, 2026, section III. Local Administration, page 24025 (official reference: announcement 1724664).