The holiday rentals sector in Mallorca, sometimes blamed for the ever-increasing prices for long-term residential renting, insists that the increase has nothing to do with its activity and far less when it comes to the luxury market.
The manager of the Habtur association for holiday rentals, Maria Gibert, has commented on a figure quoted for the growth in the number of holiday rental properties over the past ten years - officially registered ones, that is; a figure of 100,000.
She says that the figure isn't real in that many of these properties have not been commercialised. They are "ghost" properties that appear in official records but are not being rented out. "There were many more registered places because the legislative amendment of 2017 had a knock-on effect as a consequence."
Many owners completed all the procedures, but the properties aren't really on the market. She argues that blaming all the properties for the rise in rent prices makes no sense, pointing out that in Palma, for example, it is not possible to legally register apartments for holiday rental.