Who Owns the Island? Sánchez Brings the EU into Play Against the Second-Home Boom

Housing as a Right: Brussels Should Help — But How?

In the middle of the week, between meetings and press statements in Brussels, Pedro Sánchez spoke plainly: housing must not be a pure market mechanism if it displaces people from the island. In Mallorca, where in the morning the clatter of espresso cups fills the Plaça Major and in the evenings waiters talk about staff turnover, this sounds like a wake-up call. Yet the idea that the EU should provide instruments for tougher interventions raises many questions.

The Key Question: Who Owns the Island?

This is not an academic debate — it is everyday life. On the long rows of houses in Portixol you can see new names on doorbells, in Cala Major residents complain about empty apartments that are only occupied a few weeks a year. If second homes are sold in series to international investors, the social fabric risks tearing: schools, bus links and small shops lose customers, neighborhoods lose their identity. Sánchez's proposal therefore asks the right question: Who owns Mallorca — the people who live here, or those who park their money here?

What Sánchez Proposes — Three Building Blocks with Pitfalls

His concept consists of three parts: legal levers from Brussels, targeted funding for social housing and measures against speculative second-home purchasing practices. On paper, all these building blocks have potential. In practice, problem areas emerge: which competences may the EU assume without intruding on local decisions? And how do you prevent new rules from creating loopholes, for example via shell companies?

Less Discussed Aspects

The public discussion often focuses on bans or new taxes. Less attention is paid to construction and maintenance costs, the consequences of permanently empty holiday apartments in neighborhoods, or the mobility of the workforce: service staff today commute in shifts from the mainland or live in improvised shared rooms inland. If this mobility falters, not only the social fabric suffers, but the entire tourism economy does too.

Concrete EU Instruments — Practical Ideas

Several mechanisms that Sánchez hints at could be practical: special purchase permits for non-residents in particularly affected municipalities, coupled with registration and transparency obligations; vacancy taxes on permanently unused holiday apartments; stricter registration rules for short-term rentals so municipalities receive realistic data; and targeted EU funds for cooperative and municipal housing, including low-interest loans for renovation and energy modernization.

Resistance — and Legitimate Concerns

Unsurprisingly, there is pushback: hoteliers, estate agents and parts of the property industry warn against interference with property rights and business models. In Portixol a broker put the dilemma soberly: "We sell dreams — and yet we see how young families are being displaced." The conservative regional government in Palma urges caution and local decision-making space. Their question is legitimate: who decides when Brussels sets the framework?

Opportunities for Mallorca — Pragmatic and Local

Instead of ideological polemics, Mallorca needs practical measures: more transparency in ownership structures, cooperation between municipalities for regional regulation zones, tax incentives for owners who rent long-term, and promotion of housing for employees. Experimentation clauses would also be important: municipalities could run pilot projects — temporary purchase restrictions tied to social purpose commitments, local vacancy levies or municipal housing initiatives — and share the results across Europe.

Conclusion: High Debate, Possible Answers

The proposal to involve the EU more strongly has the potential to elevate the discussion to a new level. That alone will not solve anything. What will be decisive is how pragmatic, transparent and locally adapted the instruments are. In the end it will not be Brussels or Madrid alone that decide, but the people in their neighborhoods: the neighbor on the third floor, the waiter at the counter, the child going to school. Next week I will sit at the café again, listen to the street noise and hear people out. Because here, between espresso, the sound of the waves and engine noise, it becomes clearest how closely housing is tied to everyday life and identity.