The rustic amnesty puts figures on the destruction of the countryside

PalmaPollença is currently processing 360 files to legalize houses and constructive elements on rural land. Sant Josep de sa Talaia (Ibiza) has 235 at hand, although it has discarded 26 for not meeting the requirements. There is no global figure, because the councils, despite having the obligation to monitor rural land, have neglected the process and do not supervise it. "The municipalities do it directly," sources from the island governments of Mallorca, Menorca, and Ibiza have responded to ARA Balears. But, if two important municipalities add up to more than 500 files, it is clear that the rural amnesty approved by the Government of Marga Prohens has had a very significant reception. The measure has served to portray the agony of rural land, and "the complete failure as a society," in the words of the Urban Planning manager of Pollença, Tomeu Antich, in terms of enforcing the law and discipline in rural territory, fundamental for biodiversity, agriculture, landscape generation, and the preservation of culture.

In Pollença, the avalanche was foreseeable due to the municipality's long history of rural illegalities, which includes some houses that have been and are dedicated to holiday rentals for years. The City Council has had to mobilize resources and reinforce Urban Planning with a lawyer and an architect to deal with cases that require reconstructing the urbanistic history of each property: going to the archive, checking what was built and when, and determining what has expired and what has not. "This is the key element, especially in protected areas," summarizes Antich.

In recent decades, construction has been irregular not only on common rural land but also on land of scenic interest and high protection areas. The avalanche has been greater in Mallorca and the Pitiusas than in Menorca, where since 2003 it has not been possible to build on rural land and it is more difficult to sneak a building into the control systems.

L’ARA Balears has been able to confirm how some of the files processed by Sant Josep correspond to large houses with swimming pools. A real estate developer is processing four of them. “They are not tool sheds built for going to make a paella, as the Government has tried to suggest,” explains a civil servant who wishes to remain anonymous. Many of them are chalets that have been permitted, especially by town councils that have not ceded disciplinary powers to the Council, which is what they all should do.”

Along the same lines, the manager of Urbanism in Pollença assures that the 360 files they are processing do not correspond to a single profile. “In Pollença there are entire homes, but also houses from the 1950s to which extensions, annexes, and swimming pools have been added later without a license. There are some on protected rustic land. And there are also homes dedicated to tourist activity that have a holiday license. “They are taking the opportunity to get in order,” explains Antich.

The amnesty has highlighted what can be observed when walking through the countryside: if hundreds of legalization files are now entering certain town councils, how much was built for decades outside the law on rustic land?

From the tool shed to the chalet with a swimming pool

The spokesperson for Terraferida, Jaume Adrover, admits that extraordinary regularization can make sense for a certain type of building. “That little house that grandparents built, which is inherited and has no papers and cannot be extended or have a beam changed,” he gives as an example. Constructions from the 70s and 80s that were made irregularly, and which today cannot be demolished because the infraction has expired, but they cannot be legalized either.

According to Adrover, the problem is that this profile is a minority among what is emerging. “We see massive entries of hundreds of legalization projects in each town hall.” Among the cases they know are chalets, extensions, and swimming pools. “The level of illegality is lamentable,” he adds.

The figures from the Official College of Architects of the Balearic Islands give an idea of the magnitude. By mid-2025, 1,040 extraordinary legalization projects had been endorsed, 571 of which were homes. Legalizations were one of the main factors in the increase in endorsed activity by architects.

The files continue to arrive. To the 360 in Pollença and the 235 in Sant Josep, 85 are added in Inca since the last quarter of 2025, 43 in Calvià – 5 already have a license – and 60 in Alcúdia.

Extraordinary regularization is only possible when the infraction has expired. This inevitably leads to another question: how is it possible that so many works managed to expire without the Administration acting?

“It shouldn't have gone this way,” says Antich. According to the manager of Urban Planning in Pollença, regularization should be accompanied by a commitment to the future: “If we set the clock to zero, let nothing else happen on rural land again.” “There is no guarantee that this will be the case. On the contrary, there was already a regularization years ago, and these measures convey the idea that, if you can avoid the law, it's better. Someone will come to legalize you,” says Adrover.

The municipal technicians consulted point out a weakness in the system: that urban planning discipline is in the hands of the town councils. Mallorca has the Agency for Land Defense (ADT), which can assume inspection, sanctioning, and restoration of legality in rural areas by municipal delegation, but this delegation is voluntary. “The Agency should handle the discipline of all town councils, because proximity to the administrator is never good,” observes Antich. The head of Urban Planning for Alcúdia, Rafel Ferrer (PP), agrees: “It’s hard to go against a neighbor.” And he admits that “the town councils should have been more diligent in the matter of discipline.”

To proximity is added a lack of resources. Pollença has delays and a shortage of technical staff, and now has to absorb hundreds of legalizations. “Legislation is made from above, but without taking into account the lack of resources we have,” laments Antich.

Focusing the problem of rural land solely on illegality would be misleading. While hundreds of irregular constructions emerge, the legal transformation of the countryside has also not stopped. The latest data from Terraferida indicate that between 2021 and 2024 alone, 546 hectares of agricultural and forest land in Mallorca were urbanized. 57% corresponds to residential and tourist housing: 846 chalets built or expanded in four years, practically five each week. A quarter corresponds to photovoltaic installations.

A rural chalet does not only occupy the surface of the house. It implies access roads, parking areas, vehicles, fences, gardens, water consumption, and often, a swimming pool. Between 2015 and 2021, 1,765 new swimming pools were built on rural land in Mallorca. Antich explains that in Pollença they notice it on the roads: the intensity of use has skyrocketed, as have the complaints. It is the consequence of progressively transforming an agricultural territory into a dispersed residential space.

The College of Architects has warned of the problem. The dean, Bernat Nadal, has argued in various professional and business meetings that rural territory "must never lose protection" and has also called for construction there to be limited. If the territory is not protected, he warns, the Islands could become "a cardboard set." According to entities like GOB_Mallorca, "we must learn from those who have done well." "In Menorca in 2003, rustic land was declared in-buildable. It is the measure we require, even though the left did not apply it," says the vice-president of the entity, Tonina Siquier.