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875.589
Population
27.5° / 20.8°
Summer peak / Winter day
10.26%
Expat share
Updated 2026-09-01How we source our data →

Living in Gran Canaria

Gran Canaria is an island, and INE's hierarchy puts twenty-one municipalities inside it. The most useful thing to know first is how little about it is published at island level. Idealista sets no island tier for Spain, so Idealista publishes no Gran Canaria asking price. The padron publishes no island row. The only AEMET normals we hold for the island come from a station at the airport in the municipality of Ingenio, not in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and not in Mogán or San Bartolomé de Tirajana.

The census counts 875,589 residents at 1 January 2025, from INE's Censo Anual de Poblacion, table 68531, the one operation used here. Of those, 785,776 held Spanish nationality, so about a tenth were foreign nationals, derived by subtraction since INE publishes no foreign row. The same census counts 731,197 born in Spain, putting the born-abroad share nearer a sixth. On the nationality basis the largest published groups are Italian, Colombian, Moroccan, Cuban, Venezuelan and German, with British further down the same table.

Prices come one municipality at a time. Grouping Idealista's July 2026 municipality rows by island ourselves, thirteen of the twenty-one are priced, all asking prices, and the eight left out are not cheap, only unpriced. The spread is wide: the dearest asks more than three times the cheapest. The Las Palmas province average is not the island's: it also covers Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.

The verdict

Honestly considered, both sides.

The upside is real. So is the downside. Both matter more than any brochure will admit.

The case for

  • A market published municipality by municipality

    Grouping Idealista's July 2026 municipality rows by island ourselves, thirteen of the twenty-one are priced separately, so Telde can be read against Mogán directly rather than through a single island average Idealista does not publish.

  • Long climate normals from a named station

    AEMET publishes 1981 to 2010 normals for Gran Canaria Aeropuerto, station C649I, in the municipality of Ingenio at twenty-four metres: annual mean 21.1 degrees, annual rainfall 151 millimetres, 22.1 days a year with a millimetre or more.

  • Ferry links named on the operators' own pages

    Armas Trasmediterranea's routes page pairs Las Palmas de G.C. with Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, La Palma and Cadiz. Fred. Olsen Express lists Santa Cruz de Tenerife to Agaete, with onward connection to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

  • Heavy scheduled air traffic through one airport

    Aena's release of 13 January 2026 gives Gran Canaria 15,826,553 passenger movements for the full year 2025, the largest figure in that release. Movements are not tourists, and we do not convert them into arrivals.

  • Real choice between very different municipalities

    The island holds Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, counted at 384,023 in the Censo Anual, and municipalities of a few thousand people. On the census nationality basis the foreign share runs from under a thirtieth in Firgas to well over a third in Mogán.

The case against

  • No island asking price, by Idealista's own tier structure

    Idealista's own methodology names country, province, municipality, district and barrio for Spain, with no island tier, so a Gran Canaria average cannot be quoted. The Las Palmas province figure covers Lanzarote and Fuerteventura too.

  • Eight of twenty-one unpriced, on our own grouping

    Agaete, La Aldea de San Nicolás, Artenara, Firgas, Ingenio, Santa María de Guía de Gran Canaria, Tejeda and Valleseco appear in Idealista's selector but are absent from its July 2026 price table. Any municipal list here is a selection.

  • The one station we hold prints no sunshine total

    The one station we hold for Gran Canaria prints a dash for annual sunshine hours, even though all twelve monthly values are present. Monthly normals are independently rounded and cannot be added into a yearly total.

  • One station cannot describe an island this size

    The only normals we hold sit at the airport in Ingenio, at twenty-four metres, one point in one municipality. Nothing in them describes Tejeda, Artenara, Mogán or San Bartolomé de Tirajana, and an island this size varies internally.

  • The train is a project, not a service

    The Gobierno de Canarias said on 26 June 2026 that the line had cleared environmental assessment and that technical, legal and financing work continues, with the goal of starting a draft financing agreement before the end of 2026. Gran Canaria has no rail service.

Editor's note

Where you might be better off elsewhere

Gran Canaria will not suit every buyer, and the honest reasons sit in the data. Anyone wanting one island number to anchor a decision will not find it here: no island asking price, no published island padron row, and no annual sunshine total on the one station we hold. Buyers who want a market where foreign nationals are a much larger part of the population should look at Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, which sit in the same province and run at roughly a quarter and close to a third on the census nationality measure, against about a tenth here. If a working urban rail service matters, Tenerife has a tram in service, the Metropolitano de Tenerife, serving Santa Cruz de Tenerife and San Cristóbal de La Laguna; we have found no rail service on the other islands here. For something quieter, La Gomera carries no Idealista price at any level, which is itself a fair description of how thin and how private that market is. And if the island appeals but its dearest municipalities do not, Mogán and San Bartolomé de Tirajana are only two of the thirteen that July 2026 report prices, and the other eleven are all cheaper.

Lifestyle data

Climate

27.5° / 20.8°
Summer peak / Winter day
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Low 17.9°CHigh 24.6°C
Annual mean
21.1°C
Rain days
22.1/yr

Updated 2026-09-01

Access

GRAN AIRPORT
Gran Canaria

Community

10.26%
expat share

Gran Canaria FAQ

Honest answers to the questions buyers actually ask.

Is there an average property price for Gran Canaria?+
No. Idealista's 2026 methodology sets its Spanish levels at country, province, municipality, district and barrio, and there is no island tier, so no island average is published for Gran Canaria or for any other Spanish island. The nearest figure above municipality is the Las Palmas province average, which also covers Lanzarote and Fuerteventura and should never be captioned as this island's. What does exist is a municipality-by-municipality selection, and every figure in it is an asking price.
How many people live on Gran Canaria?+
INE's Censo Anual de Poblacion, table 68531, counts 875,589 residents on the island at 1 January 2025, and its twenty-one municipalities sum exactly to that figure. The padron publishes no island row at all; adding its municipal rows gives 870,608, which is our own arithmetic rather than a published number, and the two operations are not reconcilable. Keep the island figure separate from the municipality of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, counted at 384,023 in the same census.
How many residents are foreign?+
That depends on which definition is used, and both come from the same census at 1 January 2025. On nationality, 785,776 residents held Spanish nationality, leaving 89,813 foreign nationals, about a tenth. On country of birth, 731,197 were born in Spain, leaving 144,392 born abroad, nearer a sixth. The gap between the two is more than fifty thousand people. Both are derived by subtraction, since INE publishes only the total and the Spanish figure, never a foreign one.
Does Gran Canaria have a train?+
No, there is no rail service on the island. A line is planned. The Gobierno de Canarias reported on 26 June 2026 that the project had obtained its Declaracion de Impacto Ambiental and that work continues on the technical and legal aspects, with the aim of beginning a draft financing agreement before the end of 2026. That is a long way from a running railway. Search results include a site whose own footer describes it as an independent information portal, not an official one, and it floats dates the Gobierno does not.
What is the weather like on Gran Canaria?+
One station in this batch is named for the island: Gran Canaria Aeropuerto, C649I, in the municipality of Ingenio, at twenty-four metres. Over 1981 to 2010 AEMET gives it an annual mean of 21.1 degrees, an average daily maximum of 24.2, an average daily minimum of 18.0, 151 millimetres of rain, 22.1 days with a millimetre or more, and 70.9 cloudless days. Its annual sunshine total is a dash. One coastal airport cannot describe mountain villages, so treat this as that station, not the island.
Which municipalities does Idealista price highest and lowest?+
Grouping Idealista's July 2026 municipality rows by island ourselves, thirteen Gran Canaria municipalities are priced. San Bartolomé de Tirajana and Mogán sit at the top, and Moya and Vega de San Mateo at the bottom, with the dearest asking more than three times the cheapest. Of the thirteen, Vega de San Mateo is the one Idealista shows falling over the year. Moya is priced but carries no annual change at all, so its year is simply not published and no yearly movement should be quoted for it.
Which hospital would I be referred to?+
We do not name one for an island page. Our house rule is to name a reference hospital rather than a nearest one, and the hospitals listed by the Servicio Canario de la Salud in March 2025 with Gran Canaria localities sit in more than one municipality, so no single reference hospital covers the island. Catchment on the Canaries follows health-area zoning rather than the map, and we have not obtained a current zone-to-hospital mapping. Ask which zona basica an address falls in before assuming anything.
Can I reach the island by ferry?+
Operator route pages list several links. Armas Trasmediterranea's own routes page pairs Las Palmas de G.C. with Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura at two ports, La Gomera and La Palma, and with Cadiz on the mainland. Fred. Olsen Express lists Santa Cruz de Tenerife to Agaete, with onward connection to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. We publish no timetables, frequencies or crossing times, and operator branding on Canary routes is under change, so check the operator directly.
What are the costs of buying property in Gran Canaria?+
When buying property in Gran Canaria, budget for property transfer tax (ITP) of 6,5%, plus roughly 3-4% in notary, land registry and legal fees. Agency commission is usually paid by the seller. On the mainland and the Balearics, new builds pay VAT (IVA) of 10% plus AJD stamp duty instead of ITP. Transfer tax is set by Canarias rather than nationally, and reduced rates can apply for main homes and younger buyers. The Canary Islands sit outside the EU VAT area, so a new build in Gran Canaria pays IGIC instead of IVA: 7% general, 5% on a main home, 3% for qualifying buyers and 0% on VPO under the regimen general, plus AJD stamp duty of 0,75% (0,4% on the mortgage deed). IGIC and transfer tax cannot both apply, so a resale pays transfer tax and no IGIC. That is a difference on this line only, not a claim that buying here costs less overall. Source: Agencia Tributaria Canaria, Ley 19/2019, with the 2026 thresholds set by Ley 9/2025.
What are the ongoing costs of owning property in Gran Canaria?+
Annual property ownership costs in Gran Canaria include IBI (property tax) of 0.4-1.1% of cadastral value, community fees (for apartments), rubbish collection tax (basura), utility bills, and property insurance. Budget approximately 2-4% of property value per year for all running costs. IBI is set by the town hall of Gran Canaria within a national band, so it is municipal rather than regional.
What taxes do I pay when selling property in Gran Canaria?+
When selling property in Gran Canaria, you pay capital gains tax (plusvalía) on the profit at rates of 19-26% depending on the gain amount. Non-residents have 3% of the sale price withheld at completion. You may also pay municipal capital gains tax. Main residence exemptions may apply for residents over 65. Capital gains tax is national, so it is the same in Canarias as anywhere in Spain. Plusvalia municipal is set by the town hall of Gran Canaria and has had two calculation methods since the 2021 reform, so ask your lawyer which one is cheaper for you.
Can I still get a Golden Visa by buying property in Spain?+
No. Spain withdrew the Golden Visa property investment route in April 2025, so buying in Gran Canaria no longer leads to residency. Non-EU buyers who want to live in Spain apply for a separate permit instead, most often the non-lucrative visa (proof of income and private health insurance) or the digital nomad visa (remote work for non-Spanish clients). Ask an immigration lawyer which route fits your situation before you buy.

Transfer tax rates as of August 2026. Rates are set per autonomous community and do change. Confirm the current figures with a Spanish lawyer or tax adviser before you budget.

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