I’m Laura Leyshon and I’m Las Palmas’ resident property expert. I work for RE/MAX Cony Overseas, one of the city’s oldest estate agencies and the first RE/MAX office to open in Europe. Cony Overseas has an excellent local reputation and has helped hundreds of foreign buyers and sellers in Las Palmas and all over Gran […]
Mesa y Lopez: Big Properties, Great Shopping And No Traffic Noise!
Mesa y Lopez, along with Triana, was Las Palmas’ main shopping area before the modern shopping centres opened.
Nowadays it is still home to the city’s El Corte Inglés department store as well as a great range of fashion stores.
Mesa y Lopez is a long street that runs east to west from the military base in the port almost all the way to Las Canteras beach. The eastern half, between the Plaza de España (Plaza de la Victoria) and the Military Base has now been pedestrianized. This makes a huge difference because this part of Mesa y Lopez was rather noisy. Now, birdsong has replaced traffic noise and the area is much more attractive to property buyers.
This east end of the street is the poshest area with most of the quality property; you get huge apartments with big windows in Mesa y Lopez and many buildings have interior plazas with playgrounds, and underground parking. The west end of the street still has traffic but is wider and not as noisy. Prices here are lower.
Mesa y Lopez property tends to be large and well built even though many buildings are over 30 years old. It is popular with professional families and will only get more popular now that it is quiet.
Long term, Las Palmas city plants to extend Mesa y Lopez through Guanarteme barrio all the way to Las Arenas and the Auditorium so there will be new build opportunities (although there is no official start date for the project). The city also wants, in the long term, to take back the Naval Base and turn it into a public space. This would give Mesa y Lopez an outlet to the sea and make it even more attractive.
Since Mesa y Lopez is great for shopping, convenient for the port and the road to the south and the airport, and within easy walking distance of Las Canteras beach, it’s a popular property area in Las Palmas. Prices, however, are not as high as you would expect and there are good value large properties on the market.
Alcaravaneras: Great Value Barrio With Its Own Beach
Alcaravaneras beach isn’t as long or spectacular as Las Canteras as it faces Las Palmas’ huge container port.
However, it is calm and sandy and great for sunbathing, swimming and beach sports; And it’s the local beach for one of Las Palmas’ best value property zones.
Alcaravaners is just to the south of Mesa y Lopez and is a sprawling area of low-rise apartment buildings and town houses. There are lots of properties here and some really good value to be found, including some lovely old houses with original features such as tiled floors and balconies.
Alcaravaneras is about 15 minutes walk from Las Canteras beach but is close to the Mesa y Lopez shopping stret nd the city’s biggest fruit and vegetable market. It hs some fantastic restaurants tucked away in its side streets.
Vegueta: Unchanged Since Columbus Left Town
Vegueta is the original Las Palmas and its layout and many of its original buildings date back to the 15th and 16th Centuries.
Christopher Columbus himself spent three months in Vegueta (waiting for a rudder to come from Spain after his reluctant crew sabotaged the original). Even earlier in its history, Vegueta was attacked by the original Canarii inhabitants.
These days Vegueta gets bus-loads of day trippers every morning and is a popular tapas spot amongst the locals, especially on Thursday nights, but is largely peaceful.
With cobbled streets, lots of wooden balconies and big old houses with huge door and high ceilings, Vegueta is a popular place to search for a character property. Most houses here are large and have big interior courtyards and roof terraces, although some have been divided into smaller flats.
An additional advantage of owning period property in Vegueta is that many are protected by law and you don’t have to pay the annual IBI Tax.
Guanarteme: Surf City With Excellent Value Property
Guanarteme barrio has changed a lot in the last 25 years since the beachfront promenade was extended and the auditorium and Las Arenas shopping centre built.
The beach here is wilder as it isn’t sheltered by the reef. This makes it popular with surfers but it doesn’t have the flat out impact of the palm-fringed northern end of the beach.
Guanarteme property is mostly apartments in blocks up to five storeys high but there are some older townhouses and beachfront apartments. Since the barrio runs behind the beach, you are only ever five minutes walk from Las Canteras beach.
Guanarteme is a high demand area amongst Las Palmas locals and is also the centre of the city’s surfing scene. It is an excellent area for rental investors looking for rental yield from short-term tourist rentals and residential lettings. Guanarteme is also the main area for people looking to open a Las Palmas hostel and whole buildings do come onto the market.
Guanarteme is definitely up-and-coming with new restaurants and bars appearing all the time. It’s where I live in the city as you get excellent value here.
Santa Catalina: A Square Property Zone By The Beach
Santa Catalina Square is the largest square in the El Puerto district of Las Palmas and is a popular place with foreign visitors.
While it is surrounded by El Puerto, this area is often treated as a separate zone by estate agencies in Las Palmas. That’s because the square, and its surrounding pedestrian streets, give it an atmosphere of its own.
Property in Santa Catalina is almost all apartment blocks. There are a couple of buildings with rooftop swimming pools and some fantastic penthouses with terraces and views.
Santa Catalina is an area on the up as it is the arrival zone for the 1.2 million cruise ship passengers that visit Las Palmas every winter. So far, the square itself has been much improved and Luis Morote Street running past the square down to Las Canteras beach has been pedestrianized.
When considering Santa Catalina, please bear in mind that the city’s carnival is focused in the square so the area is busy and noisy during February. For the rest of the year, it’s the same as the rest of El Puerto.
El Puerto: Las Palmas’ Vast Port District
Sandwiched between the city’s Puerto de La Luz port and Las Canteras beach, El Puerto is the largest property area that is close to the beach.
El Puerto includes the Santa Catalina area around the famous square of the same name. It belnds into La Isleta at the northern end of the beach and into Guanarteme towards the south.
You find all sorts of property here from studios under €50k to vast penthouse apartments worth millions of euros. If you are looking for an apartment close to Las Canteras beach and the city’s amenities, this is a good place to start.
Searching for property in El Puerto can be daunting as there is such a wide range of options and location can make a big difference to the attractiveness of a property.
I’d advise everyone who is looking for property in El Puerto to choose a good estate agent, tell them exactly what you are looking for, and let them find you the best options. Otherwise, you’ll spend a lot of your time looking at unsuitable properties and waiting around for owners.
