The number of tourists staying in private holiday rental homes across the Canaries soared by 25% last year, according to a report released yesterday by the Ministry of Tourism.

Demand for a more authentic, private holiday experience continues to grow across the seven islands as a total of 1.29m tourists booked a break in holiday rental accommodation. A figure that equates to 8.61% of the total tourism market in the archipelago during the course of 2016.

The report reveals that there are now 29,931 holiday homes in the Canaries available for tourist rental - a figure that´s up significantly on 2015 - accounting for a total of 129,685 beds - 23% of the total capacity of the Canaries which stands at round 550,000 beds.

However only one in ten of these properties are officially registered as tourist rentals - an issue that the Canarian Government is now seeking to address.

Two major platforms - HomeAway and AirBnB - have come to dominate the market for holiday homes in the Canaries - accounting for 57% of all rentals.