Renting Out Property on Mallorca — 2026 Buyer's Guide

Mallorca is the strictest tourist-rental jurisdiction in Spain. The Balearic government stopped issuing new ETV licences in 2022 and made the moratorium indefinite in May 2024. On 3 February 2026, the city of Palma went further and declared the entire municipality a single zone unsuitable for tourist rentals — no new ETVs can be issued anywhere within Palma's boundaries. In practice, buying a property in Mallorca with short-term rental in mind is no longer about applying for a licence. It is about acquiring a property that already holds one, transferring it cleanly at completion, and understanding what happens if the next owner cannot do the same. This guide explains how the Balearic ETV system actually works in 2026, where licences are still attainable, and how to read a Mallorca rental purchase before you offer.

Important: this guide is general background as of June 2026, not legal or tax advice. The Balearic regulatory landscape changes frequently — both at autonomous-community level (Govern Balear) and at the municipal level (each Mallorcan ayuntamiento can declare its own saturated zones). For any specific property, decisions should be made with a Mallorca-based gestor and an abogado familiar with island tourism law. For the general framework that applies across Spain — federal rules, contract types, taxes — see our companion hub guide on renting out property in Spain.

ETV, ETVPL and what each one actually covers

The Balearic Islands run their own tourist-rental licence regime under Llei 8/2012 of Balearic tourism, as amended. The licence is called Estancia Turística en Vivienda (ETV), and there are three main forms:

All three are issued by the Consell Insular de Mallorca and entered in the Insular Register of Tourist Enterprises — the Consell took over the issuing role from the Govern de les Illes Balears in 2022. Each licence is tied to a specific property and a specific owner. A further qualifying requirement applies to any ETV in 2026: the property must have been used as a private residence for at least five years before the application — which effectively rules out off-plan and brand-new builds from the ETV pathway.

The ETVPL is the form that matters most in apartment-block purchases. It was introduced to fold multi-family tourist apartments into the same regulatory frame as single-family homes — and it requires the building's community of owners to approve the use before the licence can be applied for, with the same federal 3/5 double majority introduced by Organic Law 1/2025 in April 2025.

Important: the distinction between ETV and ETVPL is not cosmetic. An ETV attached to a detached villa carries the right to operate without any community vote. An ETVPL on an apartment carries an embedded community approval that can, in theory, be withdrawn by a later 3/5 vote of the same community. The risk profile of the two products is different.

The Balearic moratorium — how no new licences came to mean exactly that

In February 2022, the Govern Balear paused new ETV applications across the islands while it reviewed saturation levels. The pause was structured as a moratorium — formally a temporary suspension — but it has been extended and broadened in each successive review. The most consequential extension came in May 2024, when the Govern made the moratorium effectively indefinite: it removed the previously fixed end-date and instead conditioned any future reopening on a zone-by-zone urban-planning study that has not been published as of June 2026.

In practical 2026 terms, this means that no Balearic municipality is issuing new general ETVs to properties that were not already registered before the original 2022 cut-off. There is one narrow path: the Consorci Borsa d'Allotjaments Turístics (CBAT) operates a pool of previously approved places that have been surrendered or expired, and in 2025 it opened the first allocation since the moratorium — 654 places. CBAT allocation is competitive, technical, and not a route a foreign buyer should rely on. For practical purposes, the licence comes with the property or it doesn't come at all.

The moratorium does not affect existing licences. An ETV issued in 2020 still runs (indefinitely, for the detached form) and transfers under the rules that applied at issuance, with adaptation to current quality standards required for ETVPL/ETV60 renewals.

Palma — the full municipal ban from 3 February 2026

Palma de Mallorca went one step beyond the regional moratorium. On 3 February 2026, the Palma City Council declared the entire municipality a single unsuitable zone for tourist housing. The decision applies to every barrio inside the Palma boundaries — old town, Portixol, Santa Catalina, Son Vida, El Terreno, the whole map.

What "single unsuitable zone" means in operational terms:

• No new ETV or ETVPL applications are accepted within Palma. Even properties that would technically qualify under the regional moratorium's narrow exceptions are blocked at municipal level.
• Existing licences remain valid. Detached-form ETVs in Palma continue indefinitely under their original terms; ETVPLs and ETV-60s run through their current five-year cycle and can in principle be renewed, with the ban being forward-looking rather than retroactive.
• Renewals are not guaranteed (ETVPL and ETV-60). The municipality has signalled that future renewals will be scrutinised against the updated zoning conclusions, and licences whose buildings have lost their ETVPL community approval (or whose properties fail current habitability standards) will not pass renewal.
• Transfers appear to continue under the standard Balearic rules — an active Palma ETV can change hands with the property — but Palma-specific transfer carve-outs after the ban have not been tested in volume. Confirm with a Palma abogado for any specific property.

Important: the practical effect of the Palma ban depends on which licence you hold. A detached-form ETV in Palma stays on its original indefinite footing; the ban does not start a clock. An ETVPL inside Palma, by contrast, becomes a depreciating asset on a five-year cycle — the licence has real economic value today but may or may not survive the next renewal. Anyone buying a Palma apartment for tourist-rental income should plan around the cycle date and the building's community position, not around an indefinite assumption.

Where on Mallorca an active ETV is still realistically attainable

Outside Palma, the picture is more nuanced. Several Mallorcan municipalities still hold meaningful inventories of active ETV licences attached to properties on the market. The licence cannot be newly issued, but it can be acquired by purchasing a property that already holds one. The municipalities where ETV-bearing inventory turns over most regularly in 2026 include:

• Calvià — the largest tourist municipality outside Palma. Resort areas (Santa Ponsa, Magaluf, Palmanova, Son Caliu) hold a high density of legacy ETVs, particularly on multi-family blocks built before the 2017 ETVPL framework. Many transfer at sale.
• Andratx — west coast luxury market (Port d'Andratx, Camp de Mar). Lower-volume but higher-ticket; ETVs attach mostly to detached villas, so the regulatory profile is cleaner.
• Sóller — north-west coast (Serra de Tramuntana) with a mix of village houses and resort properties. Limited inventory; selectivity is high.
• Pollença and Alcúdia — north resort axis. Strong holiday-rental market historically; Pollença's zoning is more restrictive than most of the island (the municipality's tourism map limits much of the area to ETV-60 only), so the inventory you can buy outright is narrower than it looks. Alcúdia bay remains more open in its inland blocks.
• Capdepera and the east coast resort belt (Cala Ratjada, Cala Millor area) — a notable east-coast cluster of active ETVs, mostly attached to coastal apartment buildings.
• Manacor and inland villages — smaller market, occasional licences on rural fincas. Idiosyncratic; due diligence required on each property's permits.

The price premium for an ETV-bearing property over an equivalent non-ETV property in the same area has expanded materially since the 2022 moratorium. In coastal Calvià, Mallorca agents typically estimate that premium at around 15–25% above an equivalent unlicensed apartment in 2026 transactions; no public dataset confirms a single number, and the spread is wider in prime villa segments. The premium reflects both expected rental income and the increasingly scarce supply of transferable licences.

Important: operating a tourist rental on Mallorca without a valid ETV is heavily enforced. First-infraction fines run €20,000–€40,000, and the Consell de Mallorca actively cross-references Airbnb and Booking listings against the Insular Register. "Buy now, get a licence later" stopped being a strategy in 2022 and is now a fast route to a sanction.

How an ETV transfers at sale — and where it can break

ETVs and ETVPLs transfer with the property, but the transfer is not silent. Three administrative steps run alongside the standard property conveyance:

1. Notification to the issuing authority. The new owner files a comunicación previa de modificación de datos with the Consell Insular de Mallorca after completion. The Consell typically takes up to 60 days to confirm the registry update; the licence itself is not re-issued, only the title-holder line.
2. Municipal checks. Some Mallorcan municipalities ask for additional compatibility checks at change of ownership, particularly in zones with recent saturation activity. With the Palma ban now in force, the municipal step has become a binding gate inside Palma rather than a formality — verify locally for any specific postal code.
3. Community-of-owners reconfirmation (ETVPL only). For ETVPLs, the community vote authorising tourist use stays with the building, not the owner. ETVPLs that were already operating before 3 April 2025 retain their acquired rights under the new federal regime — communities cannot use the 3/5 majority to retroactively cancel them. They can, however, vote to prohibit new tourist uses going forward, and that vote affects any subsequent ETVPL applications in the same building. A community that recently voted in favour is materially safer than one where a revocation motion is pending.

What goes wrong, in order of likelihood:

• Licence surrendered, not transferred. If a seller surrenders the ETV before completion (for tax or other reasons), it cannot be re-issued to the buyer. The licence is gone.
• Failure to notify within thirty days. Tourism authority deregisters the property; reactivation is not automatic and, in moratorium-affected zones, may not be possible at all.
• Community revocation in flight. An ETVPL community that has called a vote on revoking tourist authorisation but not yet voted — the buyer inherits the live risk.
• Habitability or planning lapses. The property no longer meets current quality standards; the licence is technically active but cannot be re-registered after a flagged inspection.

Tip: the single most useful pre-purchase document on a Mallorca tourist apartment is the certificado del registro de turismo issued within the last thirty days, paired with a current nota simple showing no surrender on the licence. Asking for both — and getting both — separates a serious seller from one with a problem.

Balearic tax specifics — what to know beyond the national rules

The national tax framework for rental income in Spain — Modelo 210, the 19% / 24% split between EU/EEA and non-EU residents, the July 2025 deduction ruling — applies on Mallorca exactly as it does on Costa Blanca or anywhere else. See our non-resident property tax guide for the full mechanics.

Three additions matter for Mallorca specifically:

• Sustainable Tourism Tax (Impost de Turisme Sostenible, ITS). Operators of tourist accommodation in the Balearics collect a per-guest, per-night tax from visitors. The 2026 framework runs in a wider band than previous years: roughly €0.25 per guest per night in the lowest off-season category to €6 per guest per night at the top end in peak summer, with category and seasonal multipliers between. January and February are exempt in 2026. The tax is collected from the guest and remitted by the operator; it does not come out of the owner's margin but it does add a compliance line to your gestoría costs.
• Wealth tax — Balearic regime. The €700,000 national exemption applies in the Balearics, and the islands additionally apply a higher personal allowance (around €3 million) and a 90% bonus on cultural goods. That falls well short of Madrid's effective full exemption or Andalucía's 100% bonus, but it is not at the national baseline either. For high-value property buyers, the wealth tax is a more meaningful line item in the Balearics than in Madrid or Marbella — but less punitive than the headline national rate suggests.
• TEAC ruling of 24 September 2025. Non-EU residents can now elect to apply autonomous-community wealth-tax rules. In the Balearics, the autonomous regime is broadly aligned with the national rules — so the election delivers less value here than it does for a comparable buyer in Madrid. But for buyers crossing the €700,000 threshold, getting the structure right with an asesor fiscal still moves real numbers.

Pre-purchase checklist for a Mallorca rental property

For Mallorca, the standard buy-to-let checklist tightens into a smaller, sharper set of questions.

1. Active ETV or ETVPL on the property. Not "the seller used to rent it"; not "it was registered until last year". The certificado must be current and the licence type must match the property type.
2. Five-year cycle date. When does the current licence cycle expire? What renewal conditions will apply at that date — particularly in Palma, where post-ban renewals carry real risk?
3. If ETVPL, the community vote and its history. Date of the original authorising vote, current minutes (libro de actas) reviewed for any pending revocation motion, current 3/5 alignment among owners.
4. Surrender history. Has the seller ever surrendered the ETV temporarily — for example, during a renovation? In moratorium zones, a surrender is one-way.
5. Municipal saturation status. Even outside Palma, individual ayuntamientos have flagged saturated frentes marítimos on a rolling basis. Ask the municipality whether the postal code is in a saturated zone and whether a saturation vote is on the council agenda.
6. ITS compliance setup. If the seller has been operating, ask for the most recent quarterly ITS filings. A gap in filings is a sign the operation was off-the-books and the licence may have flags attached.
7. Habitability and energy certificates. Both required for renewal. A G-rated energy certificate is a 2030 stranded-asset risk; on Mallorca, where renovation costs are above mainland averages, the renovation gap matters.
8. A Plan B that does not depend on the ETV. If the licence does not survive renewal — what does the property work as? Long-term LAU is the most common Mallorca fallback, but rental yields drop materially. Personal use is the other option. Speculative resale assumes the next buyer can solve the same problem.

Tip: on Mallorca more than anywhere else in Spain, the seller's lawyer drafts the arras contract with specific protections for the licence transfer. Ensuring the contract conditions the buyer's deposit on a successful licence notification — not just on the notary signing — is a clause worth pushing for.

How Bravos Estate works on the Mallorca side

Bravos Estate's Mallorca catalogue is intentionally selective. We operate at a smaller scale on the island than we do on the Costa Blanca, and we prioritise properties where the regulatory profile is clean — ETV-bearing inventory in Calvià, Andratx and Capdepera, plus selected non-rental investment properties where the buyer's intent is personal use or long-term LAU.

What we do, before a Mallorca buyer signs:

• Pull the current certificado del registro de turismo and verify the licence is active and not subject to a pending surrender
• For ETVPLs, read the most recent three years of libro de actas for community votes on tourist use and any revocation motions in flight
• Confirm the postal code is not in a municipal saturated zone and check whether a saturation vote is on the local council agenda
• Coordinate with a Mallorca-based gestor on the 30-day notification timeline at completion
• Flag any habitability or energy-rating issues that could affect the next renewal cycle

We do not manage rental operations on Mallorca. The local management market is well-developed; we refer to specialists who run guest reception, ITS filings and SES.Hospedajes compliance day-to-day.

Legal disclaimer. This guide is general background information as of June 2026. Balearic and Mallorcan tourist-rental rules are regulated at the autonomous-community level (Govern Balear), the Consell Insular de Mallorca, and the individual municipal level — each can change rules on its own timetable through BOIB, BOPI and municipal gazettes. Court rulings, municipal saturation declarations, and licence revocations can change a property's rental status without notice. Tax obligations are individual to the owner, the property, and the rental structure. For any specific property, transaction or rental plan, decisions should be made with a qualified gestor, abogado and/or asesor fiscal familiar with Mallorcan tourism law. Bravos Estate does not provide legal, tax or property-management advice and accepts no liability for actions taken on the basis of this guide.