San Andrés reclaims the houses of returning emigrants while the rest of the municipality loses population

A fishing village with houses shuttered for decades

The village of San Andrés, on the coast in the municipality of San Andrés y Sauces, retains a layout of narrow streets and two-storey houses that stood empty for decades after their owners emigrated to Venezuela, Cuba or elsewhere in the Canary Islands. Property portals in the north have noticed a distinctive trend in recent years: the descendants of those emigrant families are reclaiming ownership of the family homes in order to restore them as second residences.

A contrast with Los Sauces, the administrative centre

This upturn sits alongside a very different picture in Los Sauces, the town that gives the municipality its name, where the housing stock is ageing with barely any generational renewal. Local property sector sources explain that much of the municipality's empty housing is concentrated precisely in Los Sauces, while San Andrés grows more appealing thanks to its closeness to the sea.

Restoration with identity, not just bricks and mortar

Restoration work in San Andrés tends to preserve the original features of the houses strictly, both out of the owners' own conviction and because of the heritage protection rules covering the village. Property portals note that this kind of refurbishment costs more than a conventional renovation, but it also increases the value of these properties considerably.

A model that is hard to replicate elsewhere in the municipality

The difficulty, municipal sources agree, is that this modest revival in San Andrés is not spreading to the rest of San Andrés y Sauces, where depopulation and the lack of affordable housing for young families persist.

A living connection with Venezuela

Many of the families now reclaiming houses in San Andrés still maintain active ties with Venezuela, the country to which their grandparents or great-grandparents emigrated over much of the last century, according to property sector sources in the north of La Palma. That connection translates into regular visits to the island and, in recent years, into a growing number of applications to regularise the ownership of homes that had stood for decades in the name of deceased relatives whose estates were never divided.

Tracing the heirs, the first obstacle

Before any restoration can begin, many families must first trace heirs scattered across the Canary Islands, Venezuela and other countries, a process that according to notarial sources on the island can drag out the regularisation of a property for months or even years. Property portals in the north acknowledge that this preliminary step, largely invisible from the outside, dictates the real pace at which the fishing village's houses are being brought back into use.

Los Sauces, the other side of the coin

While San Andrés gains a degree of momentum, Los Sauces, the municipality's administrative town, is left with an increasingly ageing housing stock and little demand either to buy or to rent. Municipal sources attribute the difference to the town's lack of immediate scenic appeal compared with the coast, as well as to the absence of any equivalent wave of returning emigrants to invigorate its property market.