The fever of rural exodus subsides after the pandemic
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In 2020, confinement forced the Canaries to rethink which four walls they wanted to live within and a debate was revived – always ongoing – on the living place. The need for larger spaces, contact with nature encouraged by fear of the virus and the possibilities offered by teleworking drove an exodus to rural areas that spread throughout the peninsula. Four years later, that trend has slowed, although not completely.
A recent study by the idealista portal indicates that, after the great peak recorded in the spring of 2021, interest in the rural world seems to have generally decreased up to pre-pandemic levels. Based on contacts to owners, interest in homes in small towns in the province of Las Palmas has currently dropped to 0.1%, while in Santa Cruz de Tenerife they account for 2.3% of the total contacts in the province.
In contrast, the registers of some rural municipalities and those with less than 10,000 inhabitants continue to increase, only they are no longer motivated by the pandemic but by the lack of supply in the cities.
“We do not believe that in the Canary Islands there has been an exodus as such,” explains Rafael Tarajano, president of the Canarian Association of Real Estate Management (Acegi). “People continue to prioritize living close to amenities and services, but there is a profile, especially families, that require larger houses and lower rents,” he points out.
Furthermore, Francisco Iñareta, spokesperson for idealista, adds that the implementation of a hybrid telecommuting model has limited the tendency to permanently move away from cities for many people who had considered moving to the countryside.
The truth is that the lack of alternatives in the capital has been pushing the Canaries to become independent, especially in the suburbs and neighboring municipalities. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, one of the most stressed areas of the archipelago and where The cost of housing has skyrocketed by 55% in the last decade, has not managed to recover the population lost during the pandemic. If in 2021 it registered a loss of 2,548 inhabitants, the latest data indicates only an increase of 122 citizens since then, according to data from the Canarian Institute of Statistics (ISTAC).
In the interior of the island, the municipalities have also experienced uneven population growth since 2019. Localities such as Valsequillo and Terorwhich have gained 327 and 280 inhabitants respectively, while Saint Matthew and Saint Brigid They have registered increases of 226 and 247 people. By contrast, Tejeda has decreased by 65 inhabitants, and Artenara and Valleseco They have also registered casualties.
In Santa Cruz of Tenerife, the population has maintained a constant upward trend. In the last four years, the capital increased its inhabitants by 2,083 people. At the same time, in this period, eight of the thirteen municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants have also experienced an increase in census registrations: those with the most, Arico (909), Sauzal (211), Fasnia (166), Vilaflor de Chasna (156) and Arafo (119). On the other hand, La Guancha, Los Silos or La Matanza lose population.
Beyond this context, if the spectrum is expanded to the last 25 years, The Canary Islands is the autonomous community that has gained the most rural population throughout the national territory, with an increase of 55.5% in the number of residents in rural municipalities until 2022. One more aspect of the demographic challenge that the autonomous community faces and whose debate involves, experts say, seeking sustainable territorial development.
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