Not far from the beach at El Puertito on the south-western coast of Tenerife, locals and foreigners have built their own homes out of materials they have found scattered across the Spanish island as rents skyrocket. "I made it by myself", said Martin Schmidtt, 62, pointing at his oven. Rumblings from large machinery and drilling from the construction of a new hotel, as well as villas, it is thought, could be heard in the background. The German from Heidelberg told the Express in his kitchen that he had been putting together a house, which is attached to a caravan, for three years. It has plumbing, a garden, shower room, bedroom and dining and living area.

He said: "I was working in Germany for 41 years. I worked and I had a breakdown, really, and then I decided to change something in my life. Then I found this place. I changed my whole life." Martin, who worked as a mechanic in a factory making glass-lined vessels, said he grows his own food, and gets his water from a shared tank on site.

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Daily Express tours Martin Schmidtt's self-built home in Tenerife

He, of course, enjoys the nice weather, and uses a palm tree in the distance to gauge if it is too windy to go for a swim.

But the noise from construction at the moment is "annoying".

"I have no stress anymore," he said. "I can walk to the beach and spend time for my own.

"I was really sick [in Germany]. I slept three or four hours a night and had to take some pills for my brain.

"I don’t take any pills anymore. I can sleep eight hours, with no drugs or anything. Nothing. I’m really healthy. I’m 62 now, most people don’t think that. 

"Most of the time I'm on my own. My neighbours and friends here visit me. It’s a nice community.

"This is one of the last natural places here in Tenerife. You can’t find something like this anymore in Tenerife. It’s completely changed."

He estimates that around 50 people live near him, and around 300 more nearer to the seafront. A lot of these, he said, are Canarians.

Martin said: "Flats are really bad in the Canary Islands. It's very expensive because tourists pay all the [high] prices for the holidays. Normal Canarian workers can’t pay this price."

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Across a road, a man from Tenerife, who wished only to be known as Miko, 47, was busy building a home for himself, hammering nails into panels of wood.

He told the Express that he and others were occupying the area.

The Canarian said: "We respect the nature. We don’t want these people building hotels everywhere. We deserve the place. We’re waiting for someone to come to talk.

"It's so expensive in this period to find the rent. Everyone is renting for holiday, nobody renting for people here that’s the problem."

He used to work as a manager at a hotel on the island until two years ago. "I've finished that life," Miko said.

"I don’t want to work anymore with tourists, with hotel, who make s*** on the sea and not preserve the nature.

"They serve s*** food to the people. Nobody is honest here."

"The island is full," the local added. "Too much traffic."

Driving around the site was Sharon Backhouse, 55, director at GeoTenerife. The group is campaigning to stop development in the area.

She said: "A lot of these people stay here to block the activity. We're putting pressure on the Government to protect this area.

"They’re just going ahead. All of that should be protected - it’s of international value."

Director of GEO Tenerife discusses sites of 'geological interest'

She then alleged that officials were not taking action against the illegal dwellings so that they have an excuse to allow development of the area.

The Express has contacted the Tenerife Island Council for comment.

Sitting nearby in his homemade house was Mateusz Wędrowiec, 37, from Kujawy in Poland. "This is not much about tourists, this place," he said.

"This is people just living their lives. I'm staying here for half a year, then I'm going back to Poland. I'm spending winter here - I'm kind of treating this as my winter camp.

"And it’s all for free, that’s the funny part."

The musician then mentioned the problem with sewage outflows into the sea on the island, and lamented at "big money influence" as a result of a system on Tenerife that relies on visitors.

Down by the sea was Adjona Cordoba, 27, who is from Tenerife and works for a car rental company at one of the island's airports. He claimed his father was the first to set up their own home in the area, which his family uses to holiday.

He said: "You disconnect from life and the times. Because we were the first, we got the first view."

The Express was in Tenerife to cover protests against the impact of overtourism on the Canary Islands, which activists say is causing a property supply, rental and environmental crisis.

Campaigners say 100,000 people marched on the streets of Santa Cruz, Tenerife's largest town.

Adjona said he comes to his house for a break, but others live there permanently because they do not have anywhere to live.

"Buying a house here is too difficult and complicated," he explained. "It is expensive." He then detailed that the rent in the south of the island, popular with tourists, is around €1,200 per month.

In Santa Cruz, meanwhile, where a lot of locals live, it is around €800. People can earn €1,300 per month, Adjona added. 

On his way down to the beach in his swimming gear with two other, who seemed to be his children, was Greg Robinson, 50, from Hull. 

When asked what he made of locals' complaints about the impact of overtourism, he said: "It's everywhere. It’s in Whitby."