Up to 60 organisations on the island backed the demonstration which took place in forty other Spanish cities calling for urgent and effective responses to the housing crisis in the Balearics and across Spain.
“Let’s put an end to the housing business” was the slogan of the demonstration. According to the organisers, the situation in the property market has got worse over the past year making it even more difficult for many people, especially young people, to access the property market either purchasing or renting.
“The situation has worsened in every way,” said Javier Barbero, one of the spokespersons for Mallorca No Es Ven, Mallorca Not For Sale. “This situation is unbearable, something is brewing,” explained Barbero highlighting an unsustainable upward trend in prices for the vast majority of people and a management deficit in terms of offering adequate responses.
“Policies to protect the middle classes have not appeared anywhere and proposals have only been made on the construction and real estate side. The only proposals are to build more housing and to liberalise land for large property owners and speculation,” said Barbero.
On Friday, several real estate agencies in Palma, Portals Nous and Puerto Andratx were vandalised. The Balearic Association of National and International Estate Agents (Abini) condemned the acts, which it described as “cowardly and unjustifiable” because it considers that they “shift the focus away from the real objective: finding real, effective and lasting solutions to the complex problem of access to housing on our islands”, they pointed out.
But, a clear example of the property crisis facing Mallorcans is that as of Friday there were 19,139 properties for sale in Mallorca, of which 4,491 were in Palma. Below 120,000 euros there were 128 properties on the island, 47 in the Balearic capital. If the range goes up to 200,000 euros, there were only 543 homes on the island, and in the city 153.
The rental market is even tougher. In Palma there are 854 flats for rent and only 10 are less than 1,000 euros a month. In the case of the whole of Mallorca, there are only 40 properties that fall below this price range out of a total of 2,412 on the island market. In the Balearics as a whole, there are only 80 properties below 1,000 euros, out of a total of 3,407 on the market.
Given the difficulty of accessing affordable housing on a middle-class salary, the option of renting rooms has proliferated. In the Balearics there are 498 rooms for rent, of which 452 are in Mallorca and of these, 318 are priced at over 500 euros. In the case of Ibiza, there are 36 and the most expensive room reaches 2,000 euros per month.
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When are the natives going to figure out that the island is where they were born , that's it , nothing more . Nobody owes them a living or a house , there is no special circumstance in any way for them . These are the rules no matter where in the world you are .
NilocYes it might be a global problem, but Mallorca is not global, it is, in world terms, a tiny island. Any mainlander in any country has vast areas to at least look at, consider. Hard to do that on a tiny island that the world has decided it wants to live on. Solution, tell the world it cannot live here. Certainly not until there are 'affordable' homes for locals, and I don't mean Swiss, German or American affordable.
As has been said and reported world wide price´s keep rising and wages actually are still behind the curve sufficiently trained and skilled labor is not easy to come by the young people are not skilled enough to find good work which provide´s a good income and Mallorca the Party Paradise is not a good place to find all the above mentioned shortfall´s so here we are , NOW WHAT the answer is not good , going to be a crazy summer and winter try to be nice to your friend´s and take care of each other this is not a problem only found in Mallorca it´s all over and mallorcan´s are more privileged than almost anywhere in Europe free bus´s , 75% discount for air travel etc etc .
Properties expensive to rent ? is a global problem.