Young people in Tacoronte give up on moving out despite living in the heart of Tenerife's metropolitan area

Tacoronte, a municipality within Tenerife's metropolitan area, has become a textbook example of the difficulty young people face in accessing their first home.

Salaries that fall well short

Typical salaries among under-35s are clearly insufficient to cover the average rent.

The flight to the towns of the north

Rising prices in Santa Cruz and La Laguna have pushed young renters towards municipalities such as Tacoronte, El Sauzal and La Matanza.

Subsidies falling short of soaring prices

Rental subsidies for young people reach only a limited number of applicants.

A generation putting off leaving home

The result is a generation delaying major life decisions because of the shortage of affordable housing.

A commuter town that has become a destination

Tacoronte, traditionally known for its wine production and its proximity to Santa Cruz and La Laguna, has gone in little more than a decade from being a place people passed through to a residential destination in its own right. That population growth, however, has not been matched by a comparable increase in housing supply, council sources acknowledge. The result is pressure on the existing stock that translates into sustained rent rises.

The profile of the young people unable to move out

Data from the Canary Islands Statistics Institute (Istac) show that the average age at which people move out of the family home in Tacoronte is above the regional average, an indicator shared with other municipalities in Tenerife's metropolitan area. Young workers in the services sector and public administration, with stable contracts but modest salaries, describe the difficulty of saving up the deposit and first months' rent that the rental market demands.

Comparison with La Laguna and Santa Cruz

Despite rising costs, average rents in Tacoronte remain lower than those recorded in La Laguna and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which partly explains the shift of young renters towards the municipality. Estate agents warn, however, that the gap has narrowed considerably over the past two years and could continue to close if demand keeps growing at the current pace.

What the municipality's youth groups are calling for

Residents' groups and youth associations in Tacoronte are calling on the Council to promote subsidised rental housing, along with municipal housing pools to help young people on modest incomes find a home. Council sources admit that the land available for this type of development is limited, meaning any solution would require cooperation with the Government of the Canary Islands.