When Living Rooms Become Bedrooms: How Mallorca Suffers from a Housing Shortage

When the living room becomes a bedroom

At the market in Palma at half past eight: vendors shout, bags rustle, church bells ring — and among it all, mattresses lie in a courtyard to dry. Such scenes are no longer a marginal phenomenon. On the Balearic Islands, thousands of households no longer live alone but together with relatives or strangers because their own apartment has become unaffordable.

The guiding question is direct: Who will find room on this island if housing continues to be converted into holiday rentals and rents rise faster than wages?

More than a statistic: faces of the housing crisis

The official figures speak of nearly 28,000 households currently practicing multi-family living. Extrapolated, this affects about 100,000 people. These are not just abstract numbers: they are neighbors from Carrer de Sant Miquel moving back in with their parents, single fathers on friends' couches, older people giving up familiar movement in their own homes.

The consequences are audible in schoolyards. Children who have no quiet place to study in the afternoons, teachers who explain that performance deficits are not only educational but also housing issues. In the apartments themselves there is a schedule: showering by shift, private conversations in stairwells, life rhythms that do not match. This creates stress — and health costs that are often overlooked today.

What is missing from the debate

There is much public debate about holiday rentals and vacancies — rightly so. But three aspects often remain underexposed: first, the invisible transfer of problems into private households (women after separation, seniors with falling incomes). Second, the role of small-scale property owners who not only list on large platforms but also keep unused second homes. Third, the social follow-up costs: overcrowded schools, increasing pressure on health services, changing neighborhoods.

Local creativity must not be romanticized either. Community washing machines, furniture exchange markets and neighborhood kitchens are impressive — and at the same time underline how much the city administration needs fact-based action. These initiatives help and ease the situation, but they do not tackle the cause.

Concrete measures that could have an impact now

A wish list is quickly written. But what matters are practical steps municipalities can implement in the short term:

1. Reactivation of vacant buildings: Municipal funding programs for renovating empty historic buildings — combined with rent-binding agreements for a defined period.

2. Temporary but secure emergency accommodations: Not just hostels, but supervised apartments with social support for women after separation, single parents and seniors.

3. Stricter controls on holiday rentals: Consistent sanctions against illegal conversions and financial incentives for owners to rent long-term.

4. Investment in social housing: Fast, small-scale projects near the city instead of large estates on the outskirts — so people are not pushed out of their social environment.

5. Support programs for cooperative housing: Models in which residents have a say and long-term stability.

All this costs money — yes. But inaction also has its price: higher health expenditures, lost educational opportunities and a city that loses its character.

A look ahead

When we walk through the old town in the morning, we don't only hear the seagulls and the filled baguettes from the bakery. We also hear the interconnected life under pressure: children who are loud in cramped apartments, elderly people who give up familiar rituals, neighbors who must keep their jobs and still have hardly any breathing room. The question remains: do we want Mallorca in ten years to be primarily a holiday map — or a vibrant place for people who work and live here?

An appeal to local politics: Short-term subsidies are necessary, but not a permanent solution. Binding concepts, transparent figures and above all: the courage to see investments in housing as investments in the island's future are needed. Otherwise, in a few years not only the apartments but also the streets will be emptier — and the island less Mallorcan.