**5. Dispossession and Displacement in Los Cristianos/Las Américas**

After having outlined the theoretical and regional contexts, the main section of this paper now proceeds with a nuanced analysis of dispossession and displacement dynamics in LC-LA. In a first subsection, I will expose the temporal and spatial distributions of court-ordered dispossessions on an intra-urban level. After that, against the context of a real estate market penetrated by price-driving short-term rentals, in a second subsection, I will look at more recent developments and local experiences of dispossession.

#### *5.1. Temporalities and Spatialities of Dispossession*

Figure 2 provides an insight into the temporal evolution of dispossessions. In line with national trends, the major share of dispossessions in Arona coincides with the years following the outbreak of the housing crisis. Accordingly, this share mainly involves mortgage foreclosures. For the period during the boom years, the database does not display any mortgage foreclosures in the research area. Even on the municipal level, only seven mortgage foreclosures are recorded in that period, all between 2006–2008. This near absence in the pre-crisis years again underscores how mortgage foreclosures only achieved widespread, albeit doubtful, fame through the housing crisis. However, the last two years of the observation period reveal a slight but notable increase in tenant evictions. Table 2, in turn, elaborates these tendencies on the infra-municipal level. Mortgage foreclosures still dominate in almost all population units of the municipality, yet Los Cristianos and Playa de Las Américas record the highest percentage of tenant evictions. On top of that, the conurbation also concentrates the biggest number of dispossessions: 393 court-ordered proceedings, which account for 27.8% of all dispossessions recorded in Arona. If we relate the figures with the population, it becomes further apparent that, apart from the peripheral settlements of Guaza (29.68‰) and Guargacho (37‰), the dispossession rates are highest in Playa de Las Américas (23.7‰). Therefore, the conurbation deserves special consideration with regard to both the amount of dispossessions and the degree to which they affect the population.

**Figure 2.** Evolution of dispossession in Arona (2001–2015). Database ATLANTE. Own elaboration.


**Table 2.** Real estate dispossession in the population units of Arona 2001–2015.

<sup>1</sup> Database ATLANTE (CGPJ). Own elaboration.

Indeed, already the temporalities in LC/LA exhibit peculiarities that distinguish it from the municipal level. Although mortgage foreclosures also dominated the years following the outbreak of the crisis (49 cases in 2014 alone) and throughout the whole observation period (56.23%), tenant evictions bear a much stronger role than in other population units of Arona. Tenant evictions in the pre-crisis years 2001–2007 alone accounted for 15.01% of all dispossessions in the research area. On the municipal level, the corresponding figure amounted to only 9.33%. This illustrates that unstable and insecure housing conditions in the rental sector already attained significance in the pre-crisis years [107]. The steady rise in tenant evictions from 2010 onwards in turn indicates that the dynamics of displacement and dispossession increasingly shifted to the rental sector in recent years [4].

However, it is also clear that these dynamics do not affect the entire urban area equally. Based on the findings that the coastal cities in Arona particularly registered negative population trends from 2008 onwards, an initial analysis of the census sections located in LC/LA found that especially the sections in central locations around the promenades and Montaña Chayofita displayed the greatest population losses since 2008. As a more nuanced point density analysis of all the georeferenced dispossessions indicates, this also

reflects the spatially dominant patterns of intra-urban real estate losses (see Figure 3). In that regard, the historical center of Los Cristianos recorded the highest density of dispossessions, essentially being mortgage foreclosures. Tenant evictions, by contrast, did not cluster in a similarly prominent way. While they predominated generally in Playa de Las Américas (52.07% of all tenant evictions), they were much more scattered (not taking into account the urbanización El Camisón), owing to the more expansive morphology of this segment of the conurbation. These patterns reflect case studies from the Balearic Islands, where researchers also observed clusters of mortgage foreclosures and scattering of tenant evictions [3,108]. Another inner-city hotspot worth mentioning is the Edificio Edén located northeast of the historical center of Los Cristianos. A temporary employment agency and the municipality's employment agency operate in the building, which, thus, serves as a reference point for residents working in the local tourism and services industry. The concentrations of dispossessions recorded there, therefore, offer initial insights into the socioeconomic repercussions of dispossession, which I will discuss in more detail in the following chapter.

**Figure 3.** Density of real estate dispossession in Los Cristianos/Las Américas (2001–2015). Database ATLANTE (CGPJ). Own elaboration. Mapa topográfico Grafcan (2014).

As mentioned before, a distinctive feature of the database is that it allows me to differentiate between residential and commercial properties (stores, restaurants, offices). In that manner, I could assign 70 of the 393 georeferenced dispossessions to commercial properties that cluster mainly around shopping centers in Playa de Las Américas; the northwesternmost foothills exhibit the highest concentration. Hence, the repercussions of the housing crisis proved to not only jeopardize residential but also working spaces.

In the following subsection, I will examine these interrelationships in more detail with regard to the socio-economic situations and housing conditions of the interviewees. In this way, I seek to develop a more qualitative and differentiated approach to capture the multifarious ways and urban contexts in which dispossession affects people.
