Manacor is the first municipality in the Balearic Islands to request to be a stressed residential area

PalmManacor is the first municipality in the Balearic Islands to approve and process a formal petition to the Government for the municipality to be declared a tense residential market area, which will allow for the application of “an individualized reference index per dwelling, taking into account factors such as surface area, location, year of construction, state of conservation, or whether it has an elevator or energy certificate”, among others, explains the municipal delegate for Urban Planning, Núria Hinojosa, which in turn will serve to “detect and correct abusive cases”.

This request is based primarily on a technical report prepared by the University of the Balearic Islands, which concludes that the municipality meets all the conditions set out in Law 12/2023 on the right to housing. Prepared by UIB professor Aleix Calveras Maristany, through the University-Business Foundation of the Balearic Islands (FUEIB), the document concludes that Manacor clearly meets the requirements stipulated by state regulations to obtain this declaration.

The study concludes that, in most of the scenarios analyzed, the cost of housing (including rent or mortgage and basic expenses) far exceeds the threshold of 30% of household and individual income, a percentage that the law sets as the affordability limit. In the case of rent, the report shows that an average household in Manacor allocates between 31.3% and 41% of monthly income to pay for housing, depending on the source and the economic scenario analyzed. In individual cases, the percentages reach up to 83.1% of this income.

Regarding the purchase of housing, the results indicate similarly very high levels of economic effort. In the case of households, access to ownership implies allocating between 30% and 39.4% of monthly income to the payment of the mortgage and associated basic expenses. At the individual level, this effort ranges between 59% and 78.7% of income.

If we look at the evolution of housing prices in Manacor, they have grown well above the CPI of the Balearic Islands in the last five years, another of the criteria foreseen by state law. Between 2020 and 2025, the accumulated CPI in the Balearic Islands has increased by 23.52%, while rental prices in Manacor have done so between 42.6% and 52.7%, according to the different sources analyzed. In the case of sales, the increase stands between 68.9% and 86.3%.

With this initiative, Manacor becomes the first municipality in the Islands to process a formal request of these characteristics based on a complete technical report. Until now, other municipalities had approved motions or political positions. The Més-Esquerra government team, the PSOE, AIPC has taken a further step, when it was approved this Monday by municipal plenary.

The report uses official sources and administrative data to prepare the diagnosis, among which the deposits made to Ibavi, the data from the State Reference System for Rental Prices (SERPAVI), official appraisals from the Ministry of Transport, and income data from the INE stand out. It also incorporates data from the real estate portal Idealista as a complementary source to observe recent market trends.

22% more population in 10 yearsThe study highlights that Manacor has experienced demographic growth of 22% in the last decade without this increase being accompanied by an equivalent increase in residential supply, a fact that has accentuated pressure on the housing market.

Hinojosa recalls that “the conclusions are very clear: Manacor clearly meets the legal requirements set by the State Housing Law”, and states that “we have shown that there is a situation of residential risk, that access to housing is severely deteriorated, and that there is an objective basis for this declaration”. Although he clarifies that this tool “is not synonymous with uniformly limiting prices”.

In this regard, the government team argues that the declaration “will not work on its own” and calls for it to be accompanied “by a wide range of measures: building public housing, increasing residential land, strengthening inspection mechanisms, pursuing illegal tourist rentals, and deploying bold public housing policies”. “We need the Government of the Balearic Islands to lead this joint response”, he stated, adding that “we also need the collaboration of the Spanish government, especially through the State Housing Plan”.

The mayor of Manacor, Miquel Oliver, also announced that the City Council has already requested an institutional meeting with the Minister of Housing, José Luis Mateo, and the Director General of Housing, José Francisco Reynés Sancho, “to personally explain this request, both from a political and technical perspective”. “The will is clear: that this issue be treated with the utmost institutional seriousness and that a reality that is already evident to thousands of Manacor families be responded to”, stated the mayor. “Now there is no excuse for the Balearic Government to study and process this declaration”, he concluded.