Residents in the Balearic Islands need twice as long to buy a home compared to the rest of Spain, according to the Economic and Social Council (CES) report for 2024. In the islands, a family must allocate 60.8 years of salary to purchase a home if they devote 30% of their income, compared with the national average of 29.7 years.
The study identifies the Balearic Islands as the region requiring the greatest financial effort to access housing, both for purchase and rental. High prices, moderate wages and growing demographic pressure explain this situation, which worsens year after year.
High foreign investment
One of the most significant factors is that 26% of the homes purchased in 2024 were bought by non-residents in Spain, more than three times the national average. This phenomenon reflects the importance of second homes and foreign investment, which contribute to the rising prices in the Balearic property market.
As a result, the price of housing increased by 6.6% year-on-year in 2024, while in the case of new homes, the rise reached 11.5%. Since 2015, the cost of new housing has doubled, consolidating the islands as the territory with the highest price increases in the country.
Population growth
Adding to this market pressure is a strong population increase. According to the CES, the Balearic population reached 1,231,768 inhabitants on 1 January 2024, representing a 1.8% rise in one year and 10.4% over the past decade — the highest variation in Spain.
This growth is almost entirely due to foreign migration, which accounts for 88.3% of population growth, compared with the national average of 11.7%. Natural growth, by contrast, is minimal, with just 0.08 per 1,000 inhabitants.
In 2024, there were 8,639 deaths and 8,738 births, although the latter have been steadily decreasing since 2008, with a 17% drop over the last decade. This confirms that the main demographic driver in the Balearic Islands in recent years has been immigration.
The foreign population currently stands at 262,760 people, accounting for 21.2% of the total — the highest proportion in Spain. Of these, 25.6% come from the European Union and 24.1% from Latin America, illustrating the diversity and demographic weight of the foreign population in the archipelago’s growth.
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