Against the background of a housing shortage in Mallorca, there is much discussion regarding the number of empty properties. The focus of this discussion is normally always Palma, with the situation in the rest of Mallorca generally ignored.
But there are some striking figures regarding these empty properties, none more so than the figure for Costitx. It has a total of 1,306 dwellings. Of these, 714 are empty, 54.7%.
Why is there such a high number? The president of the College of Real Estate Agents, José Miguel Artieda, says that it is partly due to a reluctance to rent properties out. More than this is the fact that many of the homes that appear in the census as empty should actually be registered as uninhabitable.
These are large houses that have been inherited but which require huge investment to make them habitable. "Many of these houses in villages in the interior are not suitable for rent because they are in very poor condition."
Artieda argues that these homes could be made profitable if there were permissions to convert them into small apartments. The Balearic government is in fact going to include provision for this in its new housing law. The housing minister, Marta Vidal, argues that as families are now smaller than they used to be, there is no need for apartments to be the size that some are. Conversion of this nature would also mean that no extra land is consumed.
In principle this sounds sensible. However, it can also be the case that these properties remain empty because of family disagreements or disputes.
Costitx is the most extreme case, but percentages of empty properties are high in other municipalities - Sencelles 41%, Llubi and Sant Joan 38%, Montuiri 37%, for instance.