Real estate speculation is coming to Son Macià thanks to the new law: it could triple its population.

ManacorThe development of the Transition Areas planned for Manacor could expand the municipality, which already has more than 24,000 inhabitants, beyond the 50,000 it already has. This could significantly impact small towns, such as Son Macià, which would triple its current population. This bombshell has been defused (for now) by Manacor City Council, but it worries environmental groups and the Balearic Government is keeping on the table.

In a straightforward way, a Transition Area (TA) is a classification of rural land surrounding urban centers. Its original purpose is to curb urban expansion and guarantee a reserve of land for basic infrastructure and facilities. Decree Law 4/2025, approved by the Government, changes this function and now allows these areas to be converted into high-density buildable areas.

A few months ago, the platform Mallorca por Viure, No per Especular, in collaboration with geographer Gabriel Garcies, was able to clearly identify how the development of Transition Areas (TA) would affect the various municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants (among which, of course, is Manat). Currently, there are 16,000 hectares of TA in Mallorca, of which 'only' half could be developed, since they must be in contact with consolidated urban land.

These Transition Areas foresee extremely high densities, which in the cases of municipalities such as Inca, Alcúdia, Calvià, Llucmajor, and Manacor are 180 inhabitants per hectare, and which in municipalities such as Palma and Ibiza reach up to 225 inhabitants per hectare.

The Macianero case

This means that within each hectare, high-rise buildings can be built, in order to maximize the available space. This could lead to a complete breakdown of the idiosyncrasy of towns like Son Macià, which would triple the current population of approximately 800 and could exceed 2,000 with four-, five-, and six-story apartment buildings. Regulations stipulate that half of these developments must be Limited Price Housing (HPL), but that the other 50% can be open market housing.

As we mentioned, before the new decree law of the Popular Party government, these transition areas, outlined by the 2002 Territorial Plan for Mallorca, were intended to help accommodate services such as patrols, water towers, and wastewater treatment plants, for example.

For the moment, the Manacor City Council's governing team (MÁS-Izquierda, PSOE, and AIPC) has already expressed its intention not to comply with it, effectively nullifying the implementation of the regulations for the time being. However, organizations defending the territory maintain that "any change in the vote could open a can of worms for urban planning, also in Manacor." "This would allow the Transition Areas (TA), which have been rural land for more than 20 years, to be developed." "Son Macià itself has very large Transition Areas, but of course, they were not planned to be used as apartment blocks; quite the opposite," they criticize.

Speculation

According to the GOB and the Mallorca por Viure platform, "this agreement will only benefit outside buyers or speculators and will not resolve the difficulties of buying or renting for low-income families. Furthermore, the law allows for the construction of housing in Transition Areas (TA), which until now were rural land intended to curb urban sprawl and reserve land for infrastructure."

"These seven municipalities, with over 20,000 inhabitants, may see urban growth increase significantly, without the Government quantifying the affected area, the number of homes, or the territorial and environmental impact." According to a study led by Garcies, this change could bring up to 252,810 new residential spaces, a 37% increase in the population of these municipalities compared to the 2024 census. All of this, with mostly agricultural and forestry land going from rural to developable.