The broken showcase of dreams

PalmReal estate agencies are dream factories: like Hollywood, but smaller. Or we can consider them, depending on how you look at it, a first step toward living the way Hollywood stars are supposed to. It's curious that, in the age of social media and algorithms, real estate agency windows still display photos of the type they sell: houses, apartments, and building plots (an adjective that has lost much of its meaning because now almost all of them are buildable). But these windows must be effective, because they achieve what they want, which is to attract attention. This is at least the effect they give when we see people stop in front of these windows and open their eyes for a while, sometimes for a long time, in front of the advertisements, which are generally A4 sheets hung on the glass with a suction cup. The sheets in question usually have a printed photo, as well as the main details of the property for sale: location, square footage, room layout (if there is more than one, per room), amenities (if there are any in the house or in the area), and, of course, what everyone wants to see, what everyone wants to know and understand: the price. And this is where a truly important change has occurred.

Years ago, not so long ago, house and apartment listings tended to prioritize more or less affordable options, proposals that most buyers could consider taking on (almost always via a mortgage, but at least they could consider it). Couples who decided to live together or get married, partners who wanted to open a business, wealthy individuals interested in a vacation or holiday destination, or even young people looking to become independent with a first home (the latter tended to lean more toward renting), saw in real estate agency windows possibilities that they could afford, if not more. The luxury listings were also there, but they tended to be tucked away in a corner, a bit away from the window display, and there were only a few. It was assumed that people looking for luxury homes already knew how to find them, and it made little sense to devote too much space to this type of housing. People who stopped to look at the other listings, the so-called affordable ones, would also glance at the two or three luxury home listings and make a joke, a laugh, or some witty comment, assuming it wasn't for them. "Who can afford this?" was the implicit comment, one that didn't even need to be said out loud.

Now, however, almost all the listings are for luxury homes. This isn't the first time we've commented on a photo (today's, by Ismael Velázquez) of a real estate agency's window in this section, but the novelty this time is the impacts on the glass: clearly visible three times, caused by throwing rocks or some other blunt object.

Clearly, the destruction of window displays and other private property falls within the scope of vandalism, and we won't be advocating for it here. Now, there's one detail that isn't so visible in the photo, and it's worth highlighting here in the text: the prices of the homes advertised at the bottom of the photo range from €990,000 (for a two-bedroom apartment of 86 square meters) to €3,495,000 (in the center of Palma). In between, there's a proposal for €1,840,000, and two for €2,500,000. Only one ad is able to put the brakes on it, with a price of €420,000 (unthinkable, however, for the vast majority of the population) for an apartment that doesn't look bad at first glance: 117 square meters near the Born district; yes, with only one bedroom.

Heavy speculation and deep frustration

If great power brings great responsibility, then intense speculation brings profound frustration. We've already said that throwing stones at shop windows is an unacceptable practice, but we must also know that sometimes people get angry and lose track of what is or isn't acceptable. It's like that famous story about Marie Antoinette, surely apocryphal but descriptive. "Your Majesty, the people have risen against you because you have no bread," one of her ministers warned her. "Really?" the queen would have replied. "Ido, if they don't have bread, let them eat buns." The wrong responses to inequality, the mockery of the misfortune of the poor and disadvantaged, usually go unchallenged. But sometimes they generate angry reactions.