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March 2026 | Gazette Life | 72,438 HOLIDAY RENTAL PROPERTIES WITHDRAWNA young American student died after being swept out to sea at Los Charcones in late January.Alan Patrick, aged 20, was one of four young students from the USA who were swept off the rocky coastal shelf near Playa Blanca by a large wave on the afternoon of 25th January.Two of the students managed to reach safety, suffering light injuries, while another was rescued from the open sea by a GES helicopter. Patrick%u2019s body was retrieved by divers after two days of searching A yellow alert for rough seas from Spain%u2019s weather agency, AEMET, was in place when the incident occurred, and the dirt track to Los Charcones had been closed off owing to the risky conditions.This was the third death since last August at the dangerous beauty spot, which has become more popular in recent years due to exposure on social media. THIRD DEATH IN 6 MONTHS AT LOS CHARCONESMarch was Lanzarote%u2019s busiest month in 2025, a year that brought an all-time record total of almost three and half million visitors to the island. 325,730 tourists arrived on the island in March 2025, the highest number of the year. February was the secondbusiest month, followed by October, which was the most popular month among British visitors, attracting 170,196. July was the only other month that brought more than 300,000 tourists, while the school holiday months of April, August and December failed to meet the 300,000 mark. September and June were the least busy months, but the island%u2019s tourist industry will be more concerned about December, which saw a drastic fall of 13.1% on the year before - more than 40,000 fewer tourists than in 2024.MARCH, FEBRUARY AND OCTOBER WERE THE BUSIEST MONTHS IN 2025Construction of a new 97-room five-star hotel has commenced in Playa Blanca.The luxury hotel will feature %u201cswim-up%u201d suites, with all rooms having access to a swimming pool. It will be located near the Marina Rubic%u00f3n.Construction is predicted to last around two years, with the hotel due to open in 2028.Spain%u2019s Ministry of Housing has ordered online rental platforms such as Airbnb to remove advertisements for almost two and a half thousand holiday rental properties on Lanzarote after they failed to comply with requirements for shortterm rental.Several thousand rental properties on Lanzarote officially requested inclusion on the single register of short-term rentals, which has been compulsory since last July. Between 20-30% of requests in T%u00edas, Teguise and Yaiza were rejected, meaning that they can no longer be advertised on rental platforms. 576 properties of the affected properties were in Teguise, with 570 in T%u00edas and 563 in Yaiza.NEW HOTEL IN PLAYA BLANCA