Mallorca housing crisis: row erupts as prices bite
In Palma, Mallorca’s housing crisis has sparked a sharp political clash, with the Socialist PSIB party saying people can no longer afford a first home. On 15 September, its MP Mercedes Garrido said prices were so unmanageable that some Balearic islanders had to leave the islands or live in caravans.
Garrido read out four accounts from people struggling to pay for their homes. After three years of the current Balearic Government, she said, life was “worse than ever”. She urged the Government to declare the islands a pressured housing market, a move she said would allow prices to be capped.
Housing, Territory and Mobility Minister José Luis Mateo rejected the accusation that the Government was doing nothing. He said it was working for affordable homes and preparing measures to plan more housing.
Mateo turned the attack back on the PSIB, saying people would now be collecting keys to homes if its previous administrations had built them. He also criticised Pedro Sánchez’s Spanish government, saying its public affordable-rental portal lists 800 homes across Spain but none in the Balearic Islands.
The minister said the Lloguer Segur rental programme has reached 103 beneficiaries. He also pointed to figures from some property portals and land registrars which, he said, show house prices falling.
Garrido said the issue was not whether Balearic people could buy a second home. Many, she said, could not buy their first.
Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com