Liz Rowlinson

The Spanish islands worth investing in – from Mallorca to Ibiza

  • From Spectator Life
Image: Charles Marlow

Another summer starts, and so another series of the irrepressible reality show, Love Island. Attention is focused on a rustic six-bedroom Mallorcan farmhouse being blinged up with ‘bright colours and neon signs’ for this year’s fame-hungry contestants. Its exact location is a closely guarded secret. An appetite for privacy and rural isolation on the Balearic Island has been strong trend since the pandemic started, with property hunters decamping from cities or the Spanish mainland.

Whilst Spanish home sales in the first quarter of 2022 were the highest since the boom year of 2007, according to the Spanish Association of Notaries, the property markets of the Spanish islands have been outperforming those of the Costas: the number of sales were up 45 per cent in the Canaries and 21 per cent in the Balearics, year on year. According to Rightmove Overseas, three of the top ten most searched-for overseas locations in March 2022 were Tenerife, Mallorca and Lanzarote.

But how do you choose an island? The largest, most well-established property market of all is Mallorca, where access, the modern infrastructure and international educational facilities have made the destination even more attractive to investors as well as lifestyle buyers. The estate agent, Engel & Volkers received 123 per cent increase in enquiries in 2021 compared to 2019 and across the whole ‘crisis-proof’ island, there were 13,667 properties sold last year, according to the Spanish Ministry figures.

Superb sports facilities, from Rafa Nadal’s tennis academy to 23 golf courses, 47 marinas and 2,000km of cycling trails (200,000 cyclists alone visited the island in 2019) helps it attract an especially active strand of buyers. Triathletes and professional cyclists are amongst those attracted to bolt holes in the villages in the Tramuntana mountains, such as Deia, Soller, Valldemossa and Fornalutx. You can pick up an apartment in the tiny, perched village of Deia for around €300,000 but this four-bedroom finca set in Valldemossa within beautiful grounds at €2,650,000

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