The Consell de Mallorca has put a contingency plan in place to curb illegal tourist rentals in Palma de Mallorca. Among the measures, a dedicated email channel has been opened for households that briefly circumvent the ban on operating in multi‑family buildings in Palma, and submissions can be made anonymously. In addition, five more investigators were deployed this April to pursue and sanction those breaking the rules. In 2022, the island had 237 homes affected, most of them in the city center.
Residents who wish to report violations can do so without revealing their identity through a confidential reporting avenue. This channel has been activated to allow anyone to inform the Consell de Mallorca about illegal tourist rentals, as reported by authorities yesterday.
An awareness campaign will accompany the inspection plan, alongside other measures included in the island’s transition, tourism, and sports strategy. The plan carries a budget of 700,000 euros and is overseen by senior officials such as Joan Gaspar Vallori.
The Tourism Office now employs 20 inspectors, and inspection hours have been extended to include evenings and weekends to catch advertisements that run outside traditional hours.
Up to a thousand detections
In 2022, Mallorca registered 237 illegal homes, with the bulk located in Palma. The island’s enforcement agency aims to identify between 800 and 1,000 cases within the city alone through intensified monitoring.
It should be noted that violations related to marketing tourist apartments in Palma were classified as very serious, with fines ranging from 40,001 to 400,000 euros. The Consell has already issued two substantial penalties. The owner of a six‑story building in Palma’s old town faced a 240,000 euro fine, while the owners of another five‑story building objecting to the ban on tourist housing activity across multi‑family buildings in the municipal area were fined 200,000 euros.
Geolocation will be used to streamline the detection of illegal tourist apartments. This effort, starting this April, will be carried out in collaboration with the University of the Balearic Islands and the Sustainable Tourism Observatory. Officials estimate that more than 500 homes will be identified.
Initially, 20,000 multi‑family homes will be flagged as likely candidates for unlicensed tourist accommodation in Palma. The plan relies on data from digital advertisements, heat maps to spotlight local hotspots, and cross‑referencing with cadastral parcel data. Spatial databases will be analyzed to identify plots where adverts cluster, helping determine the average proximity of advertisements to each cadastral parcel.
“We believe progress is attainable if we persist in this fight against illegal activity. The goal is to deliver higher quality tourism,” stated Andreu Serra, the Minister of Tourism and Sports. He added that the measures will improve coexistence between visitors and residents.
Investigators and Palma Local Police visited around twenty homes in the old town last Thursday and Friday. For the first time, they participated in the security and coexistence roundtables (SECON) with neighborhood police and community representatives.