One of Spain’s most popular holiday hotspots is continuing to weather the overtourism trend, with soaring house prices reportedly driving locals out of the area. Majorca has long been at the centre of the global spike in visitor footfall records in recent years, hosting a mammoth 51 million visitors in 2023 and dwarfing by some measure its population of just under one million.
As well as causing food prices to rise and crippling local infrastructure, the trend has wreaked havoc on the island’s housing sector, with a proliferation of short-term lets geared at holidaymakers leaving residents out in the cold.
The number of expats moving to Majorca has also risen sharply, with 95% of the 12,500 new arrivals in the year to July 2025 non-Spanish. Meanwhile, although wages are on the rise, earnings on the island remain low relative to the cost of living, leaving many inhabitants in a financial bind and forcing some to give up their homes and move elsewhere.
Lawyer Miguel Angel Mas told the Majorca Daily Bulletin: “Property prices are so high that when heirs inherit a house, they have no choice to sell because they don’t have the financial means to buy the other part.
“Before, they could buy. Now, it’s impossible and they have no choice but to put it up for sale because they can’t afford to buy. Property is dynamic: it’s not fossilised.”
Frustration over the growing tourism tide has bubbled over into a series of demonstrations on the Balearic Island, with 10,000 people gathering in the capital city of Palma in June with signs telling visitors to “go home”.
Recent polling by the archipelago’s Tourism Strategy Agency also found that 75.6% of its total population believe too many tourists visit the area each year.
The data highlighted support for reactive strategies including a cap on visits, which 69.1% of respondents said they would back, a limit on cruise ships, endorsed by 69.2%, and a restriction on tourist accommodation and establishments, which had the support of 68.4% of those surveyed.
Balearic authorities have come under pressure to find a solution to the ongoing problem, with proposals including stricter regulations on short-term rentals, taxes on empty or second homes and large-scale social housing projects funded by the Spanish government and EU grants.