Gran Canaria is a paradise island; a miniature continent blessed with some truly exquisite natural resources, including miles and miles of endless sandy beaches, spectacular sand dunes and a perfect year round climate.
It’s the third largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, located 130 miles off the coast of West Africa. Its two closest neighbours are Fuerteventura and Tenerife. The capital of Gran Canaria is Las Palmas, a large cosmopolitan city, located in the Northeast of the island.
It’s like perpetual springtime all year round on this idyllic island. Air temperatures ranges from a balmy 18ºC in winter to a soothing 22ºC in the summer. It’s never too hot or too cold. You’ll see people (normal people) swimming in the Atlantic Ocean and sunbathing on the beaches, in the middle of winter!
This is one of the island’s biggest appeals – the beaches and climate. It’s also one of the reasons more and more people are choosing to make permanent moves down here.
Gran Canaria has long been a popular choice with UK and northern European investors. There’s now a very large English speaking expat community, another appeal for UK homebuyers, who’ll find many top-class apartments, villas and new developments on sale throughout the island.
A Miniature Continent
Within its small geographical size of just 50 kms (side to side) Gran Canaria has a fantastically diverse variety of landscape, flora and fauna. It’s home to an overwhelming array of natural beauty, and all within this very small size – justifiably a “miniature continent”.
Like the other Canary Islands, Gran Canaria is volcanic in origin.
Gran Canaria Beaches
Gran Canaria has some of the best beaches in the Canary Islands. It has over 235 kilometres of coastline with some of the most popular white sandy beaches in Europe. An absolute must see is hugely impressive sand dune region of Maspalomas and the untouched Güigüi beach.
There’s also a huge variety of beach here: long sandy stretches packed with tourists; secluded coves; family beaches; party beaches; gay beaches; nudist beaches; and some completely deserted beaches – the perfect getaway.
The two most well known are of course, Maspalomas and Playa des Ingles. Maspalomas (with it’s spectacular dunes) is regarded by many to be the most beautiful on the island. It’s a huge stretch of fine white sand with crystal clear turquoise waters, surrounded these glorious sand dunes.
Playa del Ingles is definitely one of the most well known (and popular) beaches in the archipelago. It’s probably one of the most well known in Europe, in fact. Located in the south, between Maspalomas and San Agustín, it’s 3 kms long and remains packed all throughout the year.
The south of Gran Canaria is normally a lot sunnier than the north and attracts significantly more tourists. During the summer months of July and August it can get incredibly packed – sometimes too packed.
If this doesn’t sound to appealing, try the west coast or some of the inland areas. During the busy summer months, these areas remains almost completely free of tourists and provide some of the most spectacular landscapes and scenery on the island.
Things to do and see
Apart from the beaches, there’s plenty of things to do and see here.
There’s a wide variety of both land and water sports available. You can also go camel trekking, visit Gran Canaria’s traditional Canarian towns and villages, check out the stunningly beautiful natural parks, go to the water parks or even go gambling.
One of the Island’s highlights has to be the charming little village of Puerto de Mogan, (also known as “Little Venice”).
Visually, Gran Canaria is stunning – with its massive white sandy beaches, endless blue skies, lush green mountains and surreal golden sand dunes. It’s also got some of the best hotels, nightclubs, bars and cafés in Europe.
Buying property on Gran Canaria
Despite the recent property scare on the mainland, the Canary Islands are still an attractive option with excellent (year round) rental potential, some very affordable properties and significant returns through capital appreciation.
Gran Canaria attracts more and more investors and homebuyers every year. Buying a property here is very easy, as all the real estate agents (like Cardenas Real Estate, Monte Leon and Canary homes, for example) speak English. There’s also a huge British expat community on the island, which means you’ll feel right at home as soon as you arrive.
Having recently launched their Blog, Ramón Sánchez Bruhn and Carolina García Chagrin from Cardenas Real Estate in Gran Canaria, are excited to join this popular interaction with clients and prospective clients.
The latest Property Portal to arrive in the