MADRID – British tourists staying in hotels in the Balearic Islands may be blissfully unaware that for many Spaniards working in the tourism industry, just paying rent is a struggle.
Renting a two-bedroom house in Mallorca, Ibiza or Menorca requires almost half (48.8%) of the average household income.
Palma, the capital of Mallorca is Spain’s second most expensive capital to rent Following Barcelona, according to a survey by real estate website Idealista.es, published in five days newspaper.
Buying a house in the Balearic Islands consumes 45% of household income.
Tourism chiefs say the cost of living on the island has led to a shortage of waiters, cleaners and other tourism staff.
Some workers were forced to sleep in their cars. The national police force based on the mainland can hardly afford to conduct long-term operations on the islands, as police costs 40 euros per person per day, but most hotels charge at least 100 euros per night.
In January, the representative of Spain’s Civil Guard in Ibiza said law enforcement agencies had to “forcibly” send 85 interns to the island because “No one else wants to go“Last summer nine officers were on sick leave as they had to sleep in their cars due to a lack of accommodation.
The housing crisis comes as legal tourist rental accommodation has grown by 204% in the past decade, according to regional government figures, while the number of hotel rooms has increased by 7%, according to the Majorca Hoteliers Federation. The illegal rental market is thought to be huge.
“Access to housing is a major issue in the Balearic Islands. This is not just an issue that affects the tourism industry, it affects everyone,” said Maria Frontera, president of the Mallorca Federation of Hoteliers. personal. ” I.
A hospitality worker whose name I Agreeing to remain, said: “Eight years ago I moved from the mainland to Mallorca for work, but I still couldn’t afford a house.”
Last year, then-President of the Balearic Islands Socialist Party Francina Armengol pledged to replace hotels with social housing as the Spanish islands sought to curb a tourism boom.
She said there would be no increase in tourist accommodation on the island, one of the most popular holiday destinations for Britons in Spain.
However, after local elections last May, the more business-friendly centre-right People’s Party took control of the island with the help of the far-right Vox party, making the success of the social housing scheme unlikely.
In 2023, the Balearic Islands received 14.4 million tourists, making it the second most popular region after Catalonia.
Germans are the largest group of holidaymakers, followed by Britons and Spanish.
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