Mallorca and Ibiza, a new villa on rural land every day

PalmaEvery 31 hours, a new villa is finished on rustic land in Mallorca. This means five per week in areas that should be designated for agricultural or natural uses, according to Terraferida's complaint. If we add the available data from Ibiza, we find that between the two islands, a new rustic house is finished every day. This is an accelerated process of land transformation that is no longer occasional but structural. Environmentalists are calling for it to be stopped immediately in Mallorca and the Pitiusas, as Menorca did more than 20 years ago, and for rustic land, considered "the crown jewel of the land," to be declared non-buildable, says Terraferida spokesperson Jaume Adrover.

In a decade, 60% of what has been built on rustic land in Mallorca are villas. If they previously occupied about 120 square meters, they now reach an average of 3,000. Furthermore, they often fail to comply with the legal limit of 3% plot occupancy.

There is data of all kinds. From 2021 onwards, villas occupy 180 hectares each year, which is equivalent to the surface area of 180 football fields, also according to Terraferida data. And 11,000 more can still be built. At this rate, "we will soon be an island-city," states the entity's spokesperson, who explains this process town by town: "People are scared away," he recounts. GEN-GOB has also recently provided data on this destruction process in Ibiza and has made a specific request: to radically stop licenses on rustic land for building villas. "Rustic land is the countryside, not the city. This must be stopped now. Either the rustic is protected or everything will be a landscape of villas," points out environmentalist spokesperson Neus Prats.

This proposal has not even been debated in the institutional sphere for years. Only MÉS per Mallorca included it in its electoral program. Despite having governed in 10 municipalities, in none have they approved the measure to prohibit construction on rustic land. It is true, as the leader of the eco-sovereignists, Lluís Apesteguia, recalls, that in municipalities like Deià and Esporles "it is non-existent or very scarce, as it already has other degrees of protection," but in places like Manacor and Capdepera it has not even been put on the table. It is taken for granted that since they do not have an absolute majority, no other formation would join them. "They don't have the guts, politicians won't do it. It's true that MÉS wants to defend it, but no one dares. It moves too much money now," explains a technician from the Consell de Mallorca consulted by ARA Balears.

Giant sizes

Meanwhile, reality is advancing. Not only are more houses being built, but they are of gigantic sizes and formulas that import designs that have nothing to do with the environment. “All new chalets are immense. And we see this in hundreds of cases: of these 3,000 that we have on file, the average is this. Because there are many that hide economic activities or that, in reality, function as small hotels. In fact, in Mallorca, between 2015 and 2021, about 140 hectares of rustic land were occupied annually, and from 2021 onwards, we were already occupying 180 each year,” explains Jaume Adrover.

“Then there is the avalanche of solar panels on rustic land. We have already counted 250 hectares, but more than 1,000 may come. We are still quantifying it because projects are emerging like mushrooms,” he concludes.

Another very important change that environmental organizations are documenting is the model of land occupation. “Until the 90s, the houses built in the countryside tried to preserve the agricultural plot: construction was done in a corner, next to a boundary or an edge. In 5,000 years of history, the center of the plot had never been occupied. Now, on the other hand, all the chalets are built in the middle: they make paths, put up panels, they fragment everything,” he laments.

The proliferation of properties outside of planning regulations in rural areas already exceeds 15,000 in Mallorca, according to data provided by geographer Miquel Rosselló, who has promoted a study on the transformation of rural land in Mallorca.

This model of villa development, designed for urban uses, and which holds no interest for the rural world or its activities, puts an end to landscapes "of incalculable value". "We are destroying them by only thinking in the short term and through the complicity of administrations, which do not dare to say stop", denounces Neus Prats, territory spokesperson for GEN-GOB.

The entity, in the objections it presented to the revision of the Territorial Plan of Ibiza, warned that the island is in a situation of "environmental collapse" and directly calls for a radical change: that rural land cease to be developable with restrictions and become, generally, undevelopable.

According to Prats, "in recent years there has been a generalized degradation of the territory: destruction of the landscape, loss of biodiversity, overexploitation and contamination of aquifers, and abandonment of agricultural activity". To this, according to the entity points out in its written objections to the Ibizan Territorial Plan, structural problems are added such as the saturation of services, the water crisis, the critical management of waste, and an energy system highly dependent on external sources.

Both in Ibiza and Mallorca, this dispersion of housing "forces dependence on the car for everything, and aggravates pressure on infrastructure". "Then we have to hear that the same public officials are seeking measures to curb the use of private vehicles. It is very simple, we must stop issuing licenses for villas that do not contribute to a sustainable and reasonable economy, but to total saturation", states Neus Prats. In parallel, GOB denounces the Administration's inability to control the real uses of housing, with an illegal tourist offer that could exceed 100,000 places.

Despite this context, the new modification of the Territorial Plan of Ibiza proposes to relax the limitations and allow more buildability on rural land, according to the entity. GOB calls it "colossal irresponsibility" and demands drastic measures: prohibit new constructions and establish zero urban growth. 

Group plots

Those who do not have the famous minimum plot of 14,000 meters of common rural land have already put into practice for years a strategy to further develop the territory: merging plots. “We have detected that 42% of building permits on rural land are granted based on the merging of plots. That is, small farms are bought, such as smallholdings and scattered plots”, states Jaume Adrover. “Behind this dynamic is a clear real estate operation: fragments of land are acquired here and there until the necessary meters to build on are completed”.

It is a practice that is not occasional but systematic, according to Adrover, since “the Administration itself has recognized that it is an operation that is constantly repeated”.

In addition to their visual and territorial impact, chalets in the countryside still cause the construction of septic tanks today. “The data is worrying. Recent maps on water quality show that nitrate levels are very high throughout Mallorca and that practically no aquifer is in good condition. This situation is directly related to the proliferation of septic tanks, which over time end up filtering”. Environmentalists are clear: _no more houses on rural land. For the moment, it does not seem that any institution is taking up the idea.