Not one more plot: the Chinijo Archipelago Natural Park leaves Caleta de Sebo with no room to expand

A walk to the edge of Caleta de Sebo is enough to see it for yourself: the sandy streets and single-storey houses end abruptly, and beyond that lies nothing but protected land. La Graciosa is part of the Chinijo Archipelago Natural Park, one of the strictest protection designations in the Canary Islands, which also encompasses the islets of Montaña Clara and Alegranza and a large marine reserve.

A physical limit on growth

This protection, jointly managed by the Government of the Canary Islands, the Cabildo of Lanzarote and Teguise town council, places almost the entire island territory outside any planning scheme. In practice, land classified as urban is limited to the already built-up perimeter of Caleta de Sebo, meaning there is no scope for new developments or extending the village, according to municipal planning sources.

Approvals measured in years

Even within the existing village, any extension or change-of-use work must go through environmental approvals that, according to property portals and residents' sources, can take several years. This slowness discourages many owners from carrying out renovations and contributes to a housing stock that has remained virtually stagnant for more than a decade.

The result is a paradox the authorities themselves acknowledge: the very same protection that has saved La Graciosa's landscape from the development other Canary Islands coastlines have suffered is also what prevents new housing from meeting demand that keeps on growing.

Families waiting with no list to put their name on

There is not even a formal housing-demand register in Caleta de Sebo, according to municipal sources, because there is no land to offer anything on. Several Graciosan families have spent years waiting for a family home to become free or for some authority to set up a subsidised housing scheme, with no concrete project on the table to date. This lack of a formal channel, residents' sources say, deepens the sense of being stuck felt by those who want to stay living on the island where they were born.

A more extreme case than other protected areas

The Canary Islands has other natural parks that coexist with inhabited settlements, as around Timanfaya in Lanzarote, but sources at the regional Government say La Graciosa is a singular case because virtually the entire village is surrounded by the protection designation, with barely any transitional land. This circumstance, the same sources explain, limits any comparison with other protected municipalities, since in La Graciosa the village itself was already born within the park's boundaries.

Calls for a specific scheme for residents

Residents' groups and some municipal officials have raised in various forums the possibility of studying an exceptional subsidised-housing scheme for permanent residents, one that would not expand developable land but would allow the scarce existing stock to be used more efficiently. The Cabildo of Lanzarote and the Government of the Canary Islands have so far made no concrete commitment on this front, according to island planning sources, beyond acknowledging that the problem exists and requires a solution specific to the island.