Figures from the Majorca College of Quantity Surveyors show that there were building licences for 2,772 homes last year. These represented a 42% increase, with there having been an almost 60% increase for apartments and 23% for houses.
The college's technical secretary, Mateu Moyá, said on Thursday that these figures are way down on what they were in 2007. Prior to the financial crisis, there were some 10,000 licences annually. He added that it wouldn't be desirable to return to those figures: "they are not sustainable".
That was, he observed, "a crazy time". People were taking out mortgages for second properties and in order to speculate. The crisis changed everything in terms of licences. Even though there was recovery by 2015, there were just 135 that year. "We are possibly," he suggested, "now getting close to a sustainable number for the island".
There were 1,601 licences for apartments in 2019 and 1,171 for houses (detached or semi-detached). For the second consecutive year, apartments outstripped houses; the reverse of the situation from 2014 to 2017. In Palma there were 853 licences for apartments; in Calvia there were 220 and in Santanyi 121. As for houses, there were 204 licences in Manacor, 126 in Palma, 118 in Calvia and 117 in Marratxi.