For people earning the minimum wage, renting an apartment in Palma is an impossibility. The advice is to try and limit monthly spending on rent to a third of income or else debts can mount up. In the case of the minimum wage, across twelve payments it is 1,126 euros gross per month. A third is 370 euros.
On leading property websites, there is no apartment that comes close to this. On Fotocasa, for example, there are 1,148 ads. The lowest rent is 480 euros per month for an 18-square metre apartment in Cala Major. The next cheapest are 500 euros, also in Cala Major and in Les Meravelles (Playa de Palma).
Spending 50%, i.e. 565 euros, there are only five apartments available. None of them are bigger than 30 square metres and they are all on the outskirts. For 750 euros, there is greater availability - 162 apartments, mainly on the outskirts, with one or two bedrooms and between 50 and 80 square metres. The bulk of the offer is 800 euros and more.
It is against this background that a new housing law and regulation of rents are anticipated.