In 2016, the Balearics Institute of Statistics started to give figures for this 'non-market' accommodation. Since 2016, the number of visitors has risen from 2.5 million to 3.2 million - 24.7%. The increase in 'market' accommodation has meanwhile been 21.7% from 12.7 million to 15.5 million. This market accommodation includes the likes of agrotourism establishments as well as standard hotels and licensed holiday rentals.
Visitors staying in this type of accommodation are particularly apparent in the quietest months of the year - November to January, when relatively few hotels are open. The total number of tourists between November 2024 and January 2025 was just over 943,000, of whom 554,890 were in non-market accommodation, around 60%.
The tourism authorities and the holiday rentals sector are of the view that, for the most part, the figures disguise the illegal marketing of second homes as tourist accommodation. And this poses a particular problem in terms of detection.
The number of foreign property owners in the Balearics continues to grow. Quarterly figures consistently indicate that sales to foreigners are around a third of all sales. At the same time, what is felt to be illegal marketing has also been growing. This marketing is often in the country of origin. There are under-the-table payments and websites such as Airbnb aren't used to advertise the properties. Tourism inspectors therefore have very limited or no information to go on.
"This is a problem we have been telling the authorities about for years," says Maria Gibert of the Habtur holiday rentals association. "And I can understand the frustration of the authorities and the inspectors, because these properties are very difficult to control."
José Marcial Rodríguez, the Council of Mallorca's tourism councillor, says tourists purchase stays in their own countries and that when they arrive, they say a property is theirs, that of some cousins or of some friends. Rodríguez is referring to questions asked by the Frontur survey of tourist movements, which forms the basis for tourist statistics.
The issue of non-market accommodation is especially relevant in light of the Balearic Government's desire to implement tourism containment measures. The government has announced there will be an increase in fines for illegal accommodation - these will rise to 5,000 euros for minor offences, 50,000 for serious offences and 500,000 euros for the most serious.
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When will the three key culprits stand up and take some responsibility for the islands over-tourism problems? - namely the cruise ships, the hotel owners and the car hire companies! The government need to tackle these areas without any more delay as they are clear and visible and are easily reformed. Of course the secondary contributors need action too, but they are somewhat more difficult and opaque. These will take unique strategies. The likes of short term illegal lets thru airbnb and others; some form of legal control on foreigners buying 2nd homes; stopping 2nd homes being rented out casually for payment as described in this article; affordability of homes for local people and implementing traffic management/ restrictions for hire cars and better parking facilities at our beaches and other tourist hotspots like Formentor, Soller.
I don't disagree with the comments here. All are spot on. And I think in the main tourist spots around the island people letting family or friends stay is actual not a real problem. The island still gains. (Although the tourist often doesn't if it is more of an illegal business.. shady properties, with shady safety and/or amenities) But for some of the less touristy towns and villages, and even areas of Palma, the strain is more clear, with services like parking and public transport overloaded. But the fault is not the tourist, some of it is the foreign home owner, but much of it is the Mallorquin who sold it to a foreigner for more profit. I agree the stats in this article are out of whack, and are likely massaged by the hoteliers. But I say keep the inspections and fines, maybe even a "reward system" for ratting out the true "Airbnb" week in week out offenders, who do negatively affect communities. Maybe remove some licences. @morgan again agree with all you say, except "And why not ask the service outfits if they're servicing 2nd homeowner holiday lets?" Unfortunately, many of these are black market, likely a lot! and even those that aren't, are not going to want to rat on their clients and reduce their customer base. So you won't get much clarity there.
It's the normal hotels complaining again, as they have done for the last 20+ years.They will never stop, unfortunately. But no way to control who lives in a house. Are they knocking on doors asking for proof, like the deeds or what?
When will we get the headline; ' The growing problem in the Baleares of non stop hotel building and the overcrowding it causes' ?
So presumably they subtract the number of unique hotel bookings from the number of non-resident arrivals. How about friends and family (my children, their partners, my siblings, their children, my in-laws) all visit and why should they stay in a hotel? What about multiple visits by owners? Some non-residents visit their property dozens of times a year with large groups of family and friends. Sounds like hotel lobby whinging to me. No doubt they will soon try to "tourist tax" non-customers too. Maybe ten days tax payable on arrival if you don't have a valid hotel booking? You read it here first!
Someone buys a house here and in the months they are not using it they let other people use it. How the hell are you going to control that. You can't. The one thing that can be controlled is the sale of real estate to non residents. That will undoubtedly contravene EU rules but if they don't do it more and more properties will be bought by foreigners and more and more of those will be " let out" to friends, family and Uncle Bert's friends cousin in Cambridge or Cologne. Airport DNA blood test sir. We need to check your DNA matches that of the property owner. I don't think so. Just another reason all those wailers about costs ruining the tourist trade, killing the golden goose etc etc are barking up a very tall tree.
I have no doubt that some non-resident 2nd home owners do occasionally rent their places out. But it's unlikely they're booked solid all year. Maybe a few weeks here and there. But that would hardly be contributory to "overcrowding". And I'd expect many, if not most to indeed be "friends and family", paying or not. And there's a number of implicit assumptions here that cast some doubt on the scale of it all. First, it seems to assume that all "foreign" owners are non-resident 2nd home owners. However, the vast majority of foreign homeowners I know are full time residents. I know a few who are half time, but they definitely don't rent their places out to tourists. That's only my experience but it's clearly not some rampant activity going on. And many of those resident foreign homeowners regularly have friends and family be staying with them. You never know how many friends you have until you live in Mallorca. Spare bedroom you say? 😉 Next, this doesn't account for all the services that are required to maintain holiday lets. They have to be regularly cleaned, bedding, towels and other things laundered and changed, there needs to be someone on the ground overseeing it - whether that involves personal meet and greet, a key box or entry code or whatever, and there's damage control, maintenance, resupply, guest support... somebody has to manage that on site. There are "services" that can handle all that, but are very expensive and generally will do the minimum necessary to "earn" their exorbitant fees. To hand it over to a "service" generally results in almost no profit to the owner and puts wear and tear on the property... So why do it? And why not ask the service outfits if they're servicing 2nd homeowner holiday lets? Remote non-resident homeowners would have to have these services if they're doing any measurable business. Anyway, it does smell like scapegoating. Especially since it's all rather implausible, and so hard to quantify.
Was this yet another study commissioned by the Hotels Association? Smells that way.