Mallorca housing checks target 60 protected blocks

Mallorca housing checks will reach 60 protected developments by 2027 as the Balearic Government targets fraud, overcrowding and homes deemed unfit to live in. The wider campaign covers 74 developments across the Balearics, including ten in the Pitiusas and four in Menorca. Housing and Architecture director general José Francisco Reynés announced the plan on Wednesday.

Developments in tourist municipalities will be visited preferably during the tourist season, with illegal holiday lets a main target. Inspectors will check whether rental and sales contracts have official approval, whether prices are legal and whether occupants meet the conditions for protected housing.

Holiday lets, sales and landlord breaches

Inspectors will also examine whether sellers gave the required notice on the authorities’ pre-emption and repurchase rights. At least ten registered price-limited homes will face checks as well.

The campaign will look at possible breaches by large-scale property owners, unpaid owners’ association charges and rental-deposit rules. Free-market homes can also be inspected when residents or authorities have reported a suspected irregularity.

Storage rooms used as homes

Overcrowding checks will focus mainly on free-market homes. The Government defines it as more people living in a property than its habitation certificate permits.

It also plans to pursue substandard homes, where parts of a flat are turned into bedrooms or spaces not registered as bedrooms are rented out. Previous inspections found homes in storage rooms and commercial premises, while one living room had been split into four bedrooms.

Such cases are most common on Eivissa, Ibiza, where population growth has outpaced the housing stock. Officials carried out 40 inspections in the first six months of the year, more than in the previous five years combined, and have inspected 120 homes since 2022. Serious and very serious breaches can bring fines of €3,000 to €30,000.

Topics: Housing · Tourism · Politics

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com