The Council of Mallorca has collected 3 of the 10 million euros in fines for illegal tourist rental

PalmaThe Consell de Mallorca collected three million euros in sanctions imposed for illegal tourist rentals between 2024 and 2025. The figure represents approximately 30% of the total fines that the institution has imposed in these two years, which exceed 10 million euros. This is evident from the data that the insular council of Tourism provided to the PSIB in various written questions (the department did not respond to the query from ARA Balears asking for updated figures) under the concept of "Tourism sanctions". Although they are not exclusive to illegal tourist rentals, this activity currently concentrates the largest part of the sanctioning amounts processed by the Council.

Council sources recall that many months can pass from the initiation of an investigation until it is closed, and that voluntary payments lead to reductions in sanctions, as do cases where, by providing documentation, the fine is reduced or dismissed. All this means that the amounts in processing are always higher than the final sanctions.

A difference is observed between 2024, when more than 30% of the fines were collected, and the first half of 2025, when the percentage fell to 7%. Regarding the second half of the year, the insular council reported receiving 193,809.8 euros in this regard, although it did not specify whether it was payment for the same investigations (in this case, the percentage of fines collected would rise to 16% for the whole year) or if new ones were opened.

According to various formal responses to the socialists, between January and June 2025 the institution collected 164,607.6 euros in fines for this aspect, despite imposing sanctions for a global value exceeding two million euros (2,144,620 euros). In total, the institution collected 358,416.6 euros in fines for illegal tourist rental apartments. The previous year, 2024, the Council imposed fines worth 8,565,984 euros and collected 2,042,888. In total, 370 sanctions were filed in 2024, and 48 in the first half of 2025. It is unknown how many were in the second half of the last year. Furthermore, by December 2025, 52 cases had expired.

In Palma, the percentage falls further

In Palma, the percentage of fines effectively collected by the administration falls even further. In 2025, sanctions worth 4,298,416.2 million euros were imposed in the city, and by the end of the year, only 170,000 (4%) had been collected. In 2024, sanctions worth 528,812 euros were imposed, with 43,203.6 collected voluntarily and 4,003 through executive proceedings, representing 8% of the total.

The elected councilor from the PSIB who asked the questions, Juana Adrover, considers that the figures show that "illegal tourist rentals are not controlled in Mallorca, it is not being taken as a priority, useful inspections are not being carried out, and, above all, there is no real collection" of sanctions. In her opinion, "a lot is sanctioned on paper, but little is collected." She also highlights the fact that in 2025, collection efficiency has worsened. "Illegal vacation rentals are not decreasing, the problem is not being addressed," she lamented: "It is not enough to open files or announce large figures; what measures real effectiveness is what is collected, how long it takes to collect, and what remains blocked."

The law against illegal supply, approved in 2025, toughened sanctions, which can now reach a maximum of 500,000 euros. The norm also extended responsibility beyond owners to include marketing platforms. In addition, it introduced incentives, such as a reduction of up to 80% of the sanction if illegal apartments are used for social housing or limited-price rentals. Last Friday, councilor Guillem Ginard gave a "positive" assessment of the work carried out this legislative term. While admitting that the island government is still far from its goal of ending illegal tourist rentals, the situation has "improved each year," he said, recalling the difficulties in strengthening the sanctioning department. "This legislative term, despite the difficulties and the rigidity of the institution's functioning, the staff and the reports issued have increased," he said.