**1. Introduction**

More than a decade since the outbreak of the global financial crisis (GFC), financial insecurity and precarious working conditions continue to shape the quotidian life of many urban dwellers in Spain [1,2]. This is closely linked with the speculative accumulation tendencies of a crisis-prone real estate sector. In recent years, this comprises most notably the rental sector, provoking new dynamics of displacement and dispossession. In addition to the metropolises, these dynamics once again resonate particularly in the insular and Mediterranean tourist regions [3,4].

Starting in the 1960s, the Franco dictatorship certainly paved the way for large-scale real estate-based capital accumulation in Spain, promoting both homeownership and tourism development [5,6]. After the transition, Spain continued to rely on high construction volume and rising real estate prices to foster economic growth: with the country's entry into the European community 1986, foreign investment into the tourism sector further accelerated the Spanish real estate boom [7,8]. At the same time, private household debt rose substantially, given the loose legal regulation of mortgage lending and the prevalence of predatory lending practices and sub-prime mortgages among low-income groups [9]. Following the onset of the GFC and the bursting of the real estate bubble in 2008, construction activity came to a grinding halt, unemployment figures reached record levels, and until 2014, over 570,000 households lost their homes due to mortgage default [1] (p. 322).

**Citation:** Hof, D. Home Dispossession and Commercial Real Estate Dispossession in Tourist Conurbations. Analyzing the Reconfiguration of Displacement Dynamics in Los Cristianos/Las Américas (Tenerife). *Urban Sci.* **2021**, *5*, 30. https://doi.org/10.3390/ urbansci5010030

Received: 18 January 2021 Accepted: 4 March 2021 Published: 9 March 2021

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On a regional level, this affected mainly the Mediterranean region, as well as the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands, i.e., the hotspots of capital accumulation during the boom years [10–12] (see also Figure 1).

**Figure 1.** Construction activity in Spain (1991–2015). Housing starts and housing completions. Ministerio de Transporte, Movilidad y Agenda Urbana. Own elaboration.

In the aftermath of the crisis, the government-owned clearing bank SAREB (*Sociedad de Gestión de Activos procedentes de la Reestructuración Bancaria*) was responsible for managing and restructuring the plethora of foreclosed properties. In practice, restructuring often involved the large-scale sale of those properties to private-equity firms like Blackstone or Cerberus at discount rates. These global institutional actors then became new players on local real estate markets, inflating the rental sector in form of real estate investment trusts (REITs or SOCIMIs). Coupled with the emergence of very profitable short-term rentals in tourist regions due to disruptive platform providers like Airbnb, this exerted notable pressure upon the remaining affordable long-term rentals. As a result, low-income tenants and shopkeepers struggled to access the rental market. Ironically, after having defaulted on their mortgages or lost their jobs during the crisis, they now depend more than ever on affordable housing in the rental sector. In recent years, though, the number of evictions due to non-payment of rent increased substantially. Despite apparent economic recovery, thus, the pre-pandemic years already pointed towards a new housing crisis, which yet again was politically orchestrated [4,13,14].

Building on these interlinkages, over the last decade, critical scholars have established an extensive field of research regarding the geographies of housing dispossession in Spain. The first studies approached the issue from an interregional scale, analyzing the socio-spatial distribution of mortgage foreclosures and the reasons for the bursting of the Spanish real estate bubble on the basis of the judicial districts [15,16]. The following studies, however, gradually applied the intra-urban scale as a central field of analysis of urban inequalities. Noteworthy in this context are case studies from Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Madrid, and Valencia. While breaking down the intraurban distribution of dispossessed homes, these studies also analyze the new ownership structures of the previously foreclosed assets and consider the socio-economic contexts of the affected neighborhoods [3,4,13,17–21]. With all these advances being made, difficulties still remain in accessing data on an inframunicipal level. One reason for this is that the existing data of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) is often defective in terms of providing a comprehensive overview of real estate dispossession. For one part, it does not list commercial and residential real estate separately each. For another part, it lists only

court-ordered foreclosures and evictions. In this sense, the CGPJ only depicts the "tip of the iceberg", as displacement most often involves (semi)voluntary abandonment of the property or cost-neutral out-of-court settlements—in other words, processes, dynamics, and events that researchers struggle to capture [4] (p. 6). Finally, official judicial sources do not give details on the number of members in a household, i.e., with this data it is impossible to know how many people are affected by dispossession (see Parreño Castellano et al. 2019 for a more profound discussion on the limits and merits of CGPJ data) [22].

Following these studies, this paper analyzes mortgage foreclosures and tenant evictions on the intra-urban level of Los Cristianos-Las Américas (LC-LA), a tourist conurbation prominently situated in the south of Tenerife. The overall aim of this paper is to shed light on socio-spatial housing inequalities by (i) exposing how dispossession of residential and working spaces unfolds both temporarily and spatially and (ii) inquiring about the significance of dispossession and displacement in the lives of residents and working people alike. Moreover, I seek to answer to which extent the observed experiences of dispossession resonate with regional and national trends. This also implies exploration of how real estate speculation has shifted towards the rental sector and how this concerns the local population. As mentioned before, several case studies already have dealt with real estate dispossession on the Canary Islands. However, with exception of case studies from the island capitals Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, scholars so far have only approached the phenomenon on a regional scale [4,17,23–25]. As these works already hinted at a particular impact on tourist destinations, the case of LC-LA serves as a relevant research area to trace the reconfiguration of dispossession and displacement dynamics on an intra-urban scale. Besides, the municipalities surrounding LC-LA up until the onset of the pandemic comprised the lion's share of Tenerife's short-term rentals, making it all the more worthwhile as a research area. In the context of my research, the underlying database ATLANTE (CGPJ) provides a differentiated consideration of residential and commercial real estate dispossession for the period 2001–2015, thus allowing me to draw conclusions regarding the concernment of working spaces. Looking beyond the mere court-ordered dispossessions, the paper then carries out a supplementary evaluation of questionnaires conducted 2018 in situ. The questionnaires give insights into the experiences of dispossession and their respective socio-economic contexts.

The paper is structured as follows. The next chapter develops the theoretical lens of my investigation, venturing to sketch a rudimentary synthesis of the main insights of critical housing studies regarding dispossession and financialization. Herein, it sketches out emerging trends related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, albeit, of course, in a preliminary manner only. The following chapter specifies the empirical data and the methodical procedure, which involves both database analysis and questionnaire evaluation. As a manner of contextual introduction into the research area, the paper then outlines the investment-driven genesis of the tourist settlements in the south of Tenerife. The ensuing main chapter seeks to (i) present the temporalities and spatialities of intraurban real estate dispossession before (ii) coupling them with the experiences of residents and shopkeepers alike. To conclude, results will be discussed in line with the theoretical and regional lenses. The paper then closes by outlining recommendations for future critical research, also against the backdrop of both (yet lacking) insurgent practices and the ongoing pandemic.

## **2. Housing Financialization and Real Estate Dispossession**

Housing has become one of the central social and ecological questions of our time [26,27]. Indeed, critical scholarship has repeatedly sought to raise awareness of an intensifying global housing crisis that, in recent years, comprises inter alia, insecure tenancies, higher entry barriers to local housing markets, soaring rental burdens, and notable increases in displacements and evictions [28–31]. Viewed in a larger context that encompasses decades of neoliberal restructuring, housing dispossession is the consequential concomitant of a wide-scale enclosure of public and urban spheres [32]. More precisely, it is the growing

financialization of the real estate sector that increasingly encloses housing, ranging from mortgage-backed securities and private mortgage-debts to the rise of global landlords in form of stock-listed housing companies or private equity funds [33,34]. The GFC already set a vivid example on how these processes incite displacement and dispossession, most notably seen in traditional homeownership countries like the USA or Spain [35,36]. As ownership rates were consequentially sinking over the last years, those processes now increasingly affect rentals: in form of REITs, where global investors accumulate ever larger portfolios of the rental market, most notably by purchasing (re)commodified social housing stocks and mortgage-defaulted assets, in many cases at discount rates [37,38]. As new landlords, those investors then often push up rents, driving displacements and jeopardizing local living conditions [39]. Coupled with the rise of platform capitalism in form of shortterm rentals like Airbnb, those dynamics lead to a further disruption in touristifying neighborhoods [40]. Wachsmuth and Weisler [41] showed how Airbnb creates a new form of rent gap in fashionable and famous neighborhoods, as it requires only minimal capital investment beforehand. As a result, it becomes more appealing for property owners to end long-term rental contracts to shift their focus to short-term rentals. In addition, Airbnb provides professional players with flexible options of buy-to-let investment, given that they can resell tenant-free holiday homes at any time. As a consequence of this Airbnbdriven financialization of the rental sector, global corporate investors increasingly replace local landlords and rely more on affluent tourists than on low-income tenants. This has ramifications for the whole housing market: property prices and rents experience further spikes while urban neighborhoods lose their social cohesion [42–44]. As Hübscher et al. illustrated in the case of the island city Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Airbnb-led touristification increasingly impacts even small and medium-sized cities outside of the traditional tourism markets [45]. This is also related to politically-steered urban branding: in the course of a decades-long tourist marketing and the mercantilization of Spanish cities, city councils actively promoted inner-city touristification. Accordingly, city centers started to resemble more exhibition venues for tourists, lacking space for local businesses, retail, and services for the supply of residents. For city dwellers, the production of tourist spaces is, thus, closely linked to a loss of public spaces and urban life [46,47]. Hence, from the perspective of those affected, displacement and dispossession in all these contexts does not only involve the material loss of residential or commercial spaces but goes hand in hand with the uprooting from everyday references, relationships, and bonds [48].

In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its wide-ranging socioeconomic reverberations, it is sheerly inevitable that the pandemic will also affect housing and reshuffle real estate investment strategies. While the pandemic's long-term urban housing outcomes are difficult to predict at this stage, until now, real estate markets seem to have eased some tensions, even in Spain. This is particularly apparent in the higher supply of rentals in previously tense housing markets and tourist destinations: given the (temporary) meltdown of international tourism, many short-term rental providers found themselves forced to head back to the traditional rental market [49,50]. However, many landlords only offer temporary rental contracts as they speculate on a medium-term return to prepandemic times. In other words, they want to avoid stable leases that limit their control over their assets at all costs. Therefore, once the pandemic ends and tourism resumes, shortterm rentals are bound to return, unless a more ambitious regulatory policy framework is put in place [51–54]. A further explanation for a future revival of short-term rentals relates to stable investor expectations as Airbnb has soared on the stock market this year despite its heavy losses and reliance on institutional lenders [55,56]. Indeed, housing still offers attractive yields at a time of low interest rates, which is why real estate players have so far been reluctant to lower sales prices and rents significantly. Nevertheless, the majority of real estate players also expects a stronger slump in prices for rents and second homes, as well as in construction projects in 2021 and 2022, which, admittedly, is likely to affect real estate agencies with smaller portfolios in particular [57–59]. However, these macro-observations and preliminary projections of real estate sector developments should

not obscure the fact that numerous households—confronted with expiring rent moratoria, job losses, and ongoing economic losses—are already struggling to meet their mortgage or rent obligations [60,61]. What is more, in the midst of a pandemic, landlords and local authorities already enforced numerous (in several cases illegal) evictions in recent months, affecting vulnerable groups in particular [62–66]. After controversial debates, widespread public criticism, and organized protests from tenant movements, the socialist governing coalition has now suspended evictions, at least until May 2021. The eviction moratorium, though, involves financial compensation for house owners for defaulting rents from public funds, regardless if they are private or corporate landlords. In other words, the governing parties once again serve as a political backbone for speculative real estate accumulation. Additionally, the eviction moratorium only provides temporary alleviation while the pending issues to prevent evictions after its expiration and to guarantee affordable housing on the long term remain to be resolved [67–69]. Apart from the housing problems that low-income tenants face, likewise, a notable proportion of people managing local businesses, urban retail, and cultural institutions struggle to keep their businesses afloat, i.e., to sustain their livelihoods [70–73]. In December 2020, the Spanish government introduced an aid package for tourism, gastronomy, and retail in order to remedy the situation. However, the aid package mainly involves rent reductions of up to 50% for the tenants of big landlords; it does not include urgently needed direct financial aid for the shopkeepers themselves [74–77]. All these different modalities of crisis reactions shed light on the political economy of the pandemic: contrary to long-standing mantras of neoliberal economists, it becomes once again apparent that the economy, in this case the real estate sector, is not working entirely independent from the political realm but is intrinsically interwoven with and shaped by the political system. Throughout the last decades, the political system, more than restraining, provided the necessary legal framework for a reckless financialization. Nevertheless, political regulations, depending on their breadth and depth, could fundamentally determine and reshape the course of the economy [78]. Meanwhile, given the absence of deliberate regulatory policies, financial players are already sketching out their future investment plans, expecting to take advantage of faltering prices and defaulted asset sales [79–83]. As for Spain, it is likely that private equity funds yet again will play a dubious lead role in post-pandemic economic restructuring [83]. For instance, in April 2020, Blackstone—the world's largest private equity firm—finished raising a 9.8-billion-euro fund that will specifically target European real estate, allowing it to further consolidate market dominance over Spain's real estate sector [84,85]. At the same time, however, it is also likely that the emerging economic geographies of the pandemic will only exacerbate the austerity-led economic weaknesses of Europe's southern peripheries, given their dependence on tourism and small businesses [86]. Hence, rather than alleviating the housing crisis, the post-pandemic years might actually see a reinforcement of housing financialization and an even more substantial concentration of corporate-financial power in the real estate sector. Real estate will, thus, remain a popular type of investment and form of capital accumulation for transnational investors, thereby further exacerbating the precarious housing and living situations of low-income city dwellers [87].

These inextricable interconnections of housing, financialization, and dispossession, though global in scale, are not monolithic, i.e., they do not unfold uniformly across time and space. While there certainly exist strong linkages between global financial and real estate sectors, urban inequalities and local experiences of dispossession, contrastive considerations of the specificities of national, regional, and local housing policies and housing realities allow for a more nuanced portrayal of the variegated logics and experiences of real estate dispossession [13,88,89]. In this sense, case studies provide a valuable methodical lens to trace the regional or local logics of these globally interdependent dynamics and to understand how they unfold against different contexts. Therefore, the following sections strive to gradually introduce the research area and elaborate their particularities in the context of Spain's real estate development. Before that, however, I will shortly outline the methodical procedure of this paper.
