Young people in La Graciosa wanting to leave home run up against a housing stock that never grows

In Caleta de Sebo, many of the homes occupied today have belonged to the same family for generations, shared between parents, children and grandchildren under the same low, single-storey roof. For young Graciosans wanting to strike out on their own, renting or buying a home of their own on the island has become, according to residents' sources, one of the hardest goals to achieve anywhere in the archipelago.

A housing stock that never renews itself

The number of homes on La Graciosa barely changes from one year to the next: there are no new developments, and the few available plots are subject to the restrictions of the Chinijo Archipelago Natural Park. When a family home becomes vacant, it does not always pass to children setting up on their own; instead it competes on the market with buyers from off the island or is put straight into holiday rentals, according to property portals.

Sharing a roof or moving to Lanzarote

Faced with this outlook, many young people in Caleta de Sebo are forced to keep living with their parents longer than usual, to share a home with other young couples or, ultimately, to move to Órzola, Haría or Arrecife, in Lanzarote, and cross the sea daily or several times a week to work on the island where they were born.

Tourism and residents' sources agree that, without a specific scheme for subsidised housing for residents, young Graciosans moving out will continue to depend almost entirely on a family inheritance or the luck of finding, from time to time, a vacant house in the village.

A situation repeated across generations

Older residents in Caleta de Sebo recall that the difficulty of moving out is nothing new, though they acknowledge it has worsened in recent years due to the higher returns from tourist rentals compared with residential ones. Several families say children and grandchildren have had to wait, in some cases more than a decade, to have a home of their own in the village, something that used to be resolved more quickly through families building new houses.

Residents' associations call for an institutional response

Residents' groups on La Graciosa have on several occasions pressed Teguise town council and the Cabildo of Lanzarote on the need to study specific housing-access schemes for young people born on the island, without any measure having been agreed to date. Residents' sources insist that, without public intervention, the very demographic future of Caleta de Sebo hinges on new generations being unable to stay and live in the village.

Pent-up demand that keeps growing

Every year, more young Graciosans reach the age to strike out on their own, while the housing stock stays virtually unchanged, which according to sector sources is progressively worsening the mismatch between supply and demand. This build-up of pent-up demand, the same sources warn, could translate in the medium term into a permanent outflow of young people to Lanzarote, with the resulting risk of an ageing permanent community on the island.