More inspections against illegal holiday rentals: Is money alone enough?

More inspections against illegal holiday rentals: Is money alone enough?

Key question: Will the additional funds in 2026 really curb the black market?

The island council has significantly increased the budget for inspections in the holiday rental market: around 21 percent more, a total of €20.6 million, and the creation of 23 new positions is planned. The new staff are intended primarily to inspect, report and impose sanctions. On paper this sounds like a clear response to a shortage in the housing market that has been noticeable for years. In the streets of Palma, when the Mercat de l'Olivar awakens in the morning and delivery vans screech, however, you can feel that practice is more complicated.

Critical analysis

More money and more personnel are necessary, but not automatically sufficient. Inspection teams face a system with scattered responsibilities: municipalities, the island council, regional authorities and central courts must cooperate. Authorities can levy fines, but proceedings take time, and there are often no digital interfaces between the registration database, the tourism license list and booking platforms. On-site inspections are time-consuming: in busy holiday districts such as Cala Major or Platja de Palma, apartments change users quickly, listings disappear and new accounts appear.

The effectiveness of the measures also depends on how quickly sanctions are enforced. A fine that only becomes final after months loses its deterrent effect. Moreover, merely increasing staff is not enough if inspectors do not have modern tools for case analysis or if reports from neighbors are not taken seriously.

What is missing in the public debate

People often talk only about amounts of money and headcounts. Rarely discussed is how inspections should work on the ground: how will data synchronization between the Balearic tourism registry, municipalities and major booking platforms be achieved? Who pays for the basic work — municipalities have tight budgets. It is also seldom discussed how temporary and mixed uses (long-term tenants, guests, commuters) should be clearly separated without penalizing legal landlords.

Everyday scene

Late in the afternoon an elderly neighbor sits in a small café on Carrer del Sindicat and tells how an entire façade of a building has been occupied by changing guests for years: "Every summer different people, every winter empty again." She has tried to file complaints. Weeks later, notes appeared on the door: "Inspection announced." People here do not want the police to make headlines — they want reliability: clear rules and enforcement that protect the living environment.

Concrete solutions

1) Better digital networking: a central, up-to-date database of registered tourist licenses that municipalities and inspection authorities can query in real time. Interfaces to booking platforms should automatically check whether a listing matches a license.

2) Fast sanctions: administrative procedures must be accelerated. Temporary blocking of listings is more effective than fines that take months. A fast-track procedure for obvious violations could increase deterrence.

3) Bundled inspections: mobile teams working in hotspots and locally networked — with energy providers, water meters and neighborhood associations — can recognize patterns faster (sudden spikes in consumption, frequent short-term registrations).

4) Prevention and transparency: owners and managers need clear, easily accessible information about obligations and sanctions — also in multiple languages. A transparent list of sanctioned properties helps neighbors and reduces frustration.

5) Cooperation with platforms: negotiate that platforms require license numbers and block listings without them. Municipalities could also offer automated checks to avoid misconfigurations.

Conclusion

The increase to €20.6 million and 23 additional positions is a clear signal: enforcement is to be intensified. Whether that is enough depends on organization, technology and the speed of implementation. Without rapid digitalization, clear processes and coordinated local work, there is a risk that inspections will produce individual success stories without hitting the black market across the board. The neighbor on Carrer del Sindicat does not want headlines — she wants her street to remain a place to live even in summer. That is the measure by which effectiveness should be judged.