Last week, the PSOE opposition at Palma town hall denounced the existence of what it claimed were 800 illegal holiday lets, numbered among which were 29 apartments under the name Toros Apartamentos.
These are in three buildings in Plaça de Toros, C. Aragón and C. Foners and have a combined total of 170 places (beds).
Francisco Ducrós of PSOE said: "This is just a small sample of what can be found on Booking.com, which also markets other illegal holiday apartments." The party had made a calculation of the potential income from these apartments - 383,000 euros per month.
Javier de Juan, PSOE's deputy spokesperson at the Council of Mallorca, attacked "the presence of illegal holiday rentals on Booking, a platform that reached an agreement with the Marga Prohens government to combat illegal rentals".
It has now emerged that the legal representative of the companies that offer the Toros Apartamentos appears in the Panama Papers in respect of one of these companies plus another that is based in Malta.
Meanwhile, the Council of Mallorca's tourism department maintains that many of the properties referred to by PSOE have been subject to inspection. "The process is ongoing." The department adds: "The regulations allow the activity to continue until the process is finalised." This is why there are still ads on Booking.com and other websites.