More Controls Against Illegal Holiday Rentals – Enough or Just Window Dressing?

More Controls Against Illegal Holiday Rentals – Enough or Just Window Dressing?

The Consell recorded around 3,000 inspections over the summer and, together with platforms, removed over 4,400 unregistered listings. How does this affect neighbourhoods and rents?

Key question: Are the Consell's increased controls sufficient to sustainably solve the problem of illegal holiday rentals—or do supply and harm merely shift quietly into backyards and WhatsApp groups?

Late morning on the Passeig Marítim: rolling suitcases, vans from cleaning services and the voice of an agent on the phone. This is the tourist everyday life that the controls are targeting. The figures are impressive: roughly 3,000 inspections this year, almost 20 percent more than last year, and in cooperation with platforms more than 4,400 listings without valid registration were removed—equivalent, according to authorities, to over 20,000 advertised beds.

Critical analysis: More inspections are important, but they are only part of the equation. Authorities create visibility and put operators under pressure. Yet inspections often only reach the tip of the iceberg: visible listings, easily verifiable properties and one-off violations. The sticking points remain repeat offenders, professional managers who routinely spread their offers across multiple channels, and listings that are quickly moved or disguised as "private" rentals.

What is missing from public debate: transparency about sanctions and follow-up checks. When listings are removed, residents and renting owners ask: Was there a fine, a permanent ban, or will the property be back on the market shortly afterwards? There is a lack of comprehensible statistics showing how many removals lead to real, sustainable closures. The same applies to consequences for intermediaries and platforms that repeatedly list unregistered offers.

Another blind spot is the connection to the housing issue. When flats disappear from the long-term rental market into holiday use, tenants and neighbours see it every day: empty doorways, notices reading "holiday apartment", shuttle taxis in front of buildings. Yet the debate about inspections often remains too technocratic, without asking the follow-up question: How do you protect long-term housing in areas overstretched by tourism?

Everyday scene from Palma: On Carrer de Sant Miquel a sticker reads "rental only with a licence". Still, in the evening a key-box service rings the bell, and shortly afterwards the door opens for new guests. The impression is that inspections plug gaps, but do not necessarily dismantle the logistics behind illegal offers.

Concrete solutions we need here in Mallorca: First, automated data connections to platforms so listings can be checked in real time against the Consell register. Second, a publicly accessible list with sanction outcomes and repeat cases so municipalities and neighbours can see whether measures are working. Third, more resources for follow-up inspections: a removal today must be checked so the entry does not simply reappear.

Fourth, targeted sanctions against professional management companies and intermediaries, not just individual owners. Fifth, accompanying housing policy: subsidy programmes for rental housing in particularly affected neighbourhoods, tax incentives for owners who rent long-term, and tighter rules for converting flats into holiday accommodation.

Sixth, a locally embedded complaint system for neighbours—with quick feedback. If residents on the Plaça Major experience daily noise and constant turnover, they must have an easy way to report this to the responsible authority and to see a visible status of the case.

What could be implemented immediately: mandatory licence visibility in listings (licence number shown), tougher fines for repeat offenders and better cooperation between municipalities, police and the Consell. Also: dialogue with platforms about joint verification processes instead of just occasional deletions.

Conclusion: The increased inspections and cooperation with platforms are a step forward and send a clear signal. But without transparent sanctions, follow-up checks and a link to housing policy, much remains symbolic. For Mallorcans who face the consequences daily—empty residential blocks, rising rents, changing neighbourhoods—the next stage must be: not just delete, but regulate permanently and secure housing.

One last image to remember: evening wind in the old town, windows open, fragments of conversation from a holiday apartment—the question remains whether control will bring calm or whether the interplay of supply and demand will simply continue. The answer will decide whether the island preserves its living quality or continues to lose ground to displacement.