Low incomes in Santa Lucía and 10.75 years of pay for a home in Las Palmas

Santa Lucía de Tirajana, the Gran Canaria municipality best known for the town of Vecindario, has the fourth-lowest average income of any large town in Spain: 16,010 euros per resident per year, according to INE figures released in September 2026. Forty kilometres away, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, an average home costs 10.75 years of gross salary. The message is the same: wages on the island are not keeping pace with housing.

What the INE measures

Every year the INE, Spain's statistics office, uses tax returns to work out how much the average resident of each municipality earns after tax. Among towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants, Santa Lucía has sat near the bottom for years. In the previous edition the list was closed by El Ejido, in Almería, and topped by Pozuelo de Alarcón near Madrid, with an income almost double that of Vecindario.

Ten years of pay for a flat

The figure for the capital compares the average sale price recorded by notaries with the average income of its residents. The result, 10.75 years of full salary, comfortably exceeds the eight-year threshold the European Union treats as a sign of a stressed market. A stressed residential market zone is an area where the authorities recognise that housing has become unaffordable and may cap rents for three years. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria applied in May 2024 and, after several requests for more data from the Canary Islands Government, the file is still open. Other Canarian cities fare worse: Santa Cruz de Tenerife needs more than twelve years of income and Adeje almost twenty-five.

What it means at home

For a family in Vecindario on two local wages, rent, a car to reach jobs in the tourist south and the weekly shop take almost everything; saving a deposit is a struggle. For a young person in the capital on a starting salary the sums are harder still: property portals put the price per square metre close to 2,900 euros, and rents have risen almost 30% since 2019. The usual way out is staying with parents or sharing a flat well past thirty.

What to expect

Nothing points to prices falling in the short term. Worth watching are the decision on the capital's stressed-zone request and whether the Canary Islands Government expands social housing in the south-east. Buyers should look at municipalities such as Santa Lucía, Agüimes or Ingenio, where prices remain below the capital; tenants should check whether their contract would fall under the caps if the declaration comes through.