Housing prices are crippling: 110,000 people live in unsafe homes and 100,000 in inadequate ones.

PalmThe Balearic Islands are facing an unprecedented housing crisis. According to the 9th Foessa Report on Exclusion and Social Development, presented this Wednesday by Cáritas, 46,000 households in the archipelago fall into severe poverty simply after assuming the cost of rent and utilities. Representatives of the organization warn that the right to housing has become a "false right" and that real estate pressure is forcing many families out of the possibility of living with dignity. "Housing expels people from their land and from a dignified life," stated Foessa sociologist Thomás Ubrich at the report's presentation in Palma. "It's not the people who are failing, but the system," he added, highlighting that many households try to escape exclusion but encounter structural barriers and fragmented support systems that prevent their recovery. Between 2018 and 2024, housing prices continued to skyrocket. In Palma, rents have increased by 38%, and across the Balearic Islands as a whole, by 27%, with the average price now reaching €1,598 per month, a 31% increase compared to 2019. Today, 32% of the population lives in rented accommodation, ten points above the national average, and the Balearic Islands continue to be among the regions with the highest rates. This situation is putting enormous pressure on households, especially in areas like Ibiza, where market tension is greatest. Between 2018 and 2024, the purchase price has risen by €40,000.

As a result, 110,000 people live in unsafe housing and 100,000 in inadequate housing, many with problems of unsanitary conditions or overcrowding. More than 60% of renters spend over 30% of their income on housing costs, a situation that intensifies precariousness and limits access to other basic needs.

Social exclusion remains high

Nineteen percent of the Balearic Islands' population, more than 233,000 people, are socially excluded, and 94,000 of them live in severe exclusion. Despite macroeconomic progress, the recovery has not reached the most vulnerable households. Employment has grown, increasing from 560,000 employed people in 2018 to 607,000 in 2024, but this has not reduced their exclusion. Wages have increased by 20% nominally but only by 3.3% in real terms, insufficient to offset the rising cost of living. Exclusion among employed people has risen from affecting one in ten to almost one in seven, demonstrating that having a job no longer guarantees escaping vulnerability. These inequalities have a clear demographic component. Exclusion among foreigners reaches 31%, more than double the rate among the Spanish population. Children and young people are especially vulnerable: 24% of those under 18 and 26% of those aged 18 to 44 live in exclusion. Households with children make up two-thirds of the excluded population, and female-headed families are at high risk, with 22% in vulnerable situations.

The Foessa Report also denounces a serious deficit in the social benefits system. The Minimum Living Income (IMV) only reaches 35% of people in severe poverty, and 66% of vulnerable households report never having received information about this benefit. The Guaranteed Social Income (Resoga) has experienced a dramatic decline, falling from covering 1% of the population in 2018 to 0.44% in 2024. According to Ubrich, combining the IMV and Resoga could better cover basic needs, but bureaucracy and a lack of support leave many households without access. Meanwhile, only 7% of the population uses social services, well below the national average of 13%. Discrimination is a factor that exacerbates vulnerability. One in five households reports having experienced it, a figure that rises to almost one in two among the excluded population. 88% of people who have experienced discrimination report having lost job or social opportunities as a result. However, Foessa detects an increase in solidarity among households, which has risen from 58% in 2018 to 66% in 2024, a key element for sustaining the social fabric while structural solutions are lacking.

Call for a new social model

Given this situation, Cáritas and Foessa are calling for ambitious policies to expand the public housing stock, curb exorbitant price increases, and strengthen and simplify access to social benefits. They also propose a shift in the social model, one based on care, social justice, and ecological sustainability, to reverse the inequalities that have become entrenched over the last decade. Ubrich concludes that the Balearic Islands are at a crossroads: continue toward a more unequal and fragmented society or commit to a new social pact that places life, rights, and the common good at the heart of public action.