Popularity of Mallorca continues to increase. 27th February 2006

Whilst property price increases in mainland Spain have tailed off, and some areas are clearly suffering from an over-supply of new developments, Mallorca continues to become more popular and property prices continue to rise. There are many good reasons why this should continue to be the case, most basically, Mallorca is a relatively small Island with tight planning controls and, therefore, a finite supply of property, and this is coupled with consistently high levels of demand.

Tourism is an important factor as this fuels the buy-to-let investments sector. In 2005, whilst there were concerns that competition from other markets would impact negatively, tourism reached all time highs across the Island. There was a total increase in visitors of 3.4 per cent to 11.6 million, which is the highest rise in recent years.

The trend is consistently strong with in the number of visitors rising by 10 per cent since 2002. Furthermore, according to the Poll of Tourist Spending ( EGATUR ) carried out by the Institute of Tourist Studies, the amount spent by tourist's reached more than 10 million Euro last year which represents a increase of 6.5 per cent over the previous year.

Another key factor is the publicity Mallorca has received as a desirably place to live. whilst demand for second properties and holiday rental investments is the largest single driving force behind the market, we are also seeing an increase in requests for more residential properties better suited to permanent living on the Island. Historically the Germans have been the predominant ex-pat nationality in Mallorca but this is changing as demand from Germany decreases and demand from the UK and other countries including Scandinavia and Eastern Europe increases. Demand is now higher from the UK than it is from any other country.