WEEK IN REVIEW
The stories that made the headlines this week in Mallorca
House prices up by 100%
In a week when the Balearic parliament approved the government’s housing bill, by which ‘limited-price housing’ becomes law, there was further evidence - if it was really needed - of extremes that exist in the housing market.
Barely a week seems to pass without there being a report about house prices in Mallorca and the Balearics, and so we had one of multiple sources that supply these reports - property website Fotocasa - informing us that the average house price has risen more than 100% over the past ten years. Taking an 80-square metre property as reference, the average price in 2014 was 147,327 euros; it is now 307,811 euros. The increase is the highest among Spain’s regions and places the Balearics slightly below Madrid (314,250 euros) as the most expensive region.
Fotocasa doesn’t envisage any halt to the rise in prices, “so long as supply doesn’t increase”. The government’s bill contemplates greater supply but only to a limited extent, as this was the parliamentary rubber-stamping of the decree whereby, for example, commercial premises can be converted into residential accommodation.
Rent caps could lead to a black market
At a seminar in Palma, speakers made a collective statement of the obvious - “there are no magic solutions to the housing problem in Mallorca”. Referring to a Spanish government measure under new national housing law, one speaker, Professor Héctor Simón Moreno, director of the Unesco chair on the right to housing, was critical of rent caps, arguing that these will cause “unwanted collateral effects, such as the decrease in supply and the appearance of a black market”. He was meanwhile supportive of the Balearic government’s conversion policy.
Living in motorhomes
Some people excluded from the housing market have turned to living in motorhomes. In Son Güells in Palma there is a ‘settlement’ of some forty motorhomes. The owners will face sanctions by the town hall when a new bylaw is introduced. Fines up to 1,500 euros will be levied if motorhomes stay in one place for more than ten days.
They insist that they live in the motorhomes because they haven’t got anywhere else and are of the view that matters will get worse because of a shortage of affordable homes. They accuse the mayor of wanting to sweep the problem under the carpet and do nothing other than issue fines, which they won’t be able to afford.