A North American fund and Sareb take over the project for 1,080 apartments in Son Ximelis

PalmThe Palma City Council has definitively approved the statutes and bases of the compensation board for the Son Ximelis Strategic Residential Project, a situation that opens the way to the urbanization of 143,649 square meters, where 1,080 homes can be built, according to municipal data. Of the total, 530 homes will have some type of public protection. The project had initial approval, but final approval was necessary to step on the accelerator.

Behind this urban development operation, which is part of the Strategic Residential Projects (PRE) in processing, there are two players: an international investment fund –Oaktree, through its subsidiary ERRIAP Activos Inmobiliarios— and Sareb, which have managed to group more than 60% of the land necessary to promote the project and lead its development. Oaktree, which owns the majority of the property, is an American fund based in Los Angeles that operates in Europe through companies in Luxembourg.

The project has benefited from new regulations, both in terms of the possibility of including more homes in the same space –according to the Law on strategic projects and land acquisition– and in terms of simplified processing. At this moment, the small landowners of the plots in this developable area of Palma have been excluded. They were asking for a different model, but their assets will also be part of the operation without even an expropriation having been carried out.

One of Palma's major residential projects

Son Ximelis is part of the Strategic Residential Projects (PRE) promoted by Cort to increase housing supply in the city. These developments foresee the construction of more than 7,000 homes in Palma, with a percentage of 50% of official protection and limited price.

This project joins other large areas in processing, such as Son Güells, Cas Pastors, and Son Cladera, which shape the urban growth planned for Palma in the coming years. According to ARA Balears, despite the acceleration of procedures promoted by the PP, sources from urban developers estimate that most of the apartments will not be completed for another four or five years. In any case, the step achieved by the investment fund Oaktree may mean that those of Son Ximelis will be among the first to arrive.

Now it is time to draw up the urban development project and submit it to the filters of Urbanism and the other administrations involved. Developers will have to prove where they will get the water for the supply of the new development. The General Plan of Palma includes specific reports on the lack of water resources to develop what was planned when it was approved. Now, there is still more intensity of use in certain developable lands, as is the case of Son Ximelis.

The key role of the new law

The operation is part of Law 4/2025 on urgent actions for strategic residential projects, which allows for the streamlining of urban planning procedures and an increase in buildable area to accelerate housing construction.

The regulation introduces exceptional mechanisms within urban planning management, and has been key to speeding up processing and allowing major property owners, such as investment funds and Sareb, to prioritize their criteria over those of small property owners. The rule has allowed them to integrate plots within the redistribution without the need for prior expropriation, a measure that strengthens the operational capacity of major property owners.

This circumstance led to objections from a company based in Alcúdia and also from Iberdrola Inmobiliaria, who disagreed with the procedure. The current regulation has allowed Cort to dismiss the objections and for the process of creating the foundations for the new development to be carried out.

According to legal sources consulted, "the case highlights the imbalance between large operators and minority owners," with a greater weight of large holders. With the approval of the statutes, effective control of the development falls into the hands of the international fund and Sareb, who will set the pace of the development and the future construction of housing.

The final approval of the statutes marks the transition from the administrative to the operational phase. The compensation board will be responsible for managing the redistribution of land and the development works. However, the formal constitution is still pending a regional report provided for by law, which will have to definitively validate the development.