Pilar Hernando lives in a caravan on the outskirts of Palma and showers in the local sports centre. The 45-year-old Hernando, who has struggled to find work in bars and restaurants, said she cannot afford rental prices that have risen significantly partly due to a tourism boom on the Spanish holiday island.
"Prices go up, rents go up, everything goes up...except salaries," Hernando said. She is one of a number of Mallorcan residents resorting to living in caravans parked in makeshift camps as they are priced out of the housing market by landlords preferring to rent to tourists. The trend has led to protests in the island as well as in Spain's most visited city of Barcelona and other locations. Last Sunday, about 10,000 protesters took part in a rally against mass tourism in Palma de Mallorca.
The city has three such caravan sites. Local authorities have provided a recycling system but its residents say there is only one place on the island to dispose of sewage. They say they are not allowed to open their windows or place a table outside because they are parked in a public space.
Police have threatened them with fines while the local government said it cannot provide any more facilities and referred them to social services, they said.
The Balearic Islands government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Anti-tourism activists in Spain say visitors drive up housing costs and lead to residents being unable to afford living in city centres. Spain received 33 million international travellers up to May, 14% more than the same period in 2023. After Catalonia, the Balearic Islands was the second most popular region of Spain for tourists last year, attracting 14.4 million holidaymakers, the National Statistics Institute said.
Tourism also generates 45% of the Balearic Islands' gross domestic product, tourism industry association Exceltur says.
But visitors increasingly favour renting holiday homes via apps such as Airbnb when travelling, with short-term rentals by foreign tourists up by 24% between March and May, Exceltur said.
On the islands, rents have risen 158% in the past decade, the sharpest increase in Spain, according to property listings website Fotocasa. The average rent for an 80-square-metre (861 square feet) apartment on the Spanish archipelago was 1,447 euros ($1,570) a month in June, Fotocasa said. That compares to an average monthly salary in Spain of 1,925 euros, according to the Statistics Institute.
Aina Anamaria, 48, took out a loan to buy a motorhome which she pays off in monthly instalments of 323 euros, about half of the 700-euro salary she receives for working in a shop. Renting a room in an apartment on the island will typically cost 400-500 euros, she said.
"There's no way to describe how we have to live this way on our own island," she said.
13 comments
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Charles Dalrymple-ChumleyYou shouldn't apply the UKs problems to the rest of the world. A council flat in some countries are like winning a lottery. They are well maintained and certainly not poorly built Nor ghettos with no go area. So in your view they should do nothing to help the locals to get a decent place to live, but rather continue to have housing problems. Because you say it failed in the UK you assume it fails anywhere, well that's a rather narrow attitude, Mr. Dalrymple-Chumley.
So happy to see most of the comments on this topic lately. Been so annoyed by the naive complaining by folks against (mass) tourism, busy roads and not being able to avoid the flat you want. Blame game is so pathetic and hypocritical. Work harder, change career if you have to, create and seize opportunities. Nobody is taking anything away from you….
Charles Dalrymple-ChumleyNothing like a good generalisation. The majority of council estates in the UK are full of good hard working people from my experience (I lived on one for a while). What you described is probably only 10% of it.
Ulla JacksonIn the UK those are called Council estates. Poor quality social housing badly maintained that becomes a ghetto for gangs, drug dealers and miscreants of all types. Eventually Council estates turn into no-go areas for the police and other authorities. If social housing is needed in Mallorca then a re-think is necessary. The UK model failed.
What is the local government doing for the locals? Nothing. What is the Unions doing to demand higher salaries. Nothing. Why don't they spend money to build flats ONLY to be rented to locals, and noone else. It's very quiet in that front, and always has been.
Jules OI completely agree. Most Euro city centres are non-residential owing to businesses not individuals pushing up the cost of rents and capital prices. I lived in the very centre of London for decades and latterly it became only Arabs who could afford to buy property. Local Mallorcians don't seem to understand this and blame tourists and visitors for the fact that they can't afford a penthouse apartment on Paseo Mallorca!
Last time I looked, poorly-paid people couldn't afford to live in the city centre of almost any major city in the world. This is hardly a Mallorca-only issue!
If you're poor it's always someone else's fault. Never yours. Can't get hired? Blame the economy. Can't afford to eat out? Blame high priced eateries. Can't find a home to your standard? Blame tourists and second home owners. Etc... The blame game is the easy way out of complaining why you can't do or buy something. The reality is that all those people you blame are not preventing you from doing business with them. It's just a matter of helping yourself to be able to afford these things. There's money all over Mallorca just waiting to be collected but it ain't making its way to you. You have to find it. Enterprise, cunning, creativity and determination are what will introduce you to the cash. It's there either in the form of self-starting commerce or convincing an employer that their business would greatly benefit from your skills. But the blame game? It's for losers.
Mallorcans. Stop always blaming other people for your problems. It's your own politicians, that you elected, that are are causing these social problems. They are the ones that need to act. Start kicking them in there butts.
Exactly. I agree second homes are a contributing problem, but that's not who the protesters are ultimately targeting. Listen, this is being shifted onto holiday makers because of a previously failed autonomo government who sat in bed with hoteliers, cruise companies, taxi mafias, the green alliance and banked purchase taxes without consideration or investment in the island or to the local population. Who will they shout about after September?