Més, one third of the coalitions that are the Balearic government and the Council of Mallorca's ruling administration, have announced that their manifestos for the elections in May will include a total ban on all new construction in Mallorca's countryside with the exception of buildings for agricultural use. The party is therefore proposing that there are no new residential properties, no new hotels and no new agrotourism establishments.
The Més candidate to be president of the Council of Mallorca, Jaume Alzamora, insists that it is time to stop talking about minimum plots for building on rustic land and to instead apply a total ban.
At present, residential use of rustic land (subject to its classification) is possible if a plot is at least 14,000 square metres. This is for a single house, and the minimum can be increased depending on what protective measures may be in place. In order to build a house on rural land, a declaration of general interest is required by the Council; around 500 permissions are given each year.
At a Thursday press conference, Alzamora stated that "we have a problem in that we have reached unsustainable limits". A ban, he argued, "is a necessary measure", and this would have to included in the Council's territorial plan for Mallorca. The latest version of this plan is close to being approved but it doesn't contemplate a total ban.
Lluís Apesteguia, the Més coordinator and candidate for the presidency of the Balearic government, stressed the need for access to housing at an affordable price. With this in mind, he said that his party will be proposing that town halls are allowed to set limits on prices to rent. This assumes, however, that the Spanish government delegates the relevant powers for this to regional governments.
He referred to the decree law that the Balearic government approved on Tuesday. This will limit the possibility for town halls to give permission for new developments on rural land; the emphasis is on using available urban land and rehabilitating existing buildings. An exception will be made for the building of social housing. Apesteguia believed that there was not a contradiction between limiting development on rural land with measures to create more housing, but added that current home building "does not meet the needs of the population".
Apesteguia reiterated a Més intention to seek to limit the purchase of homes by non-residents.