Rental Prices are coming down in Mallorca!

Renting an apartment in Mallorca is becoming cheaper as property owners are now more open to negotiation and tenants more often than not will enjoy a price reduction.  It is the first time in many years that landlords have been willing to lower their prices.  They are looking for good tenants who pay regularly.

At one time a three bedroom flat in Palma of around 90 sq.mtrs. and two bathrooms would have rented a year ago for around 750 euros a month.  Nowadays this same type of property can be found for about 650 euros a month.

An Estate Agent, well known in the capital, also said that it is in the interest of the landlords to bring the prices down.  The landlords are looking for tenants preferably employed by the government, health service or education service as they have regular year round incomes.  There are now more flats and villas on the rental market than before which means that the market is much more competitive so the monthly rental amount has become quite an important issue in today’s climate.

Others favoured by the landlords are those on the mature side who can provide references.  Landlords are not so interested in those people who have temporary or seasonal employment as the guarantees of a regular income are limited.

It has been assessed and found that approximately 70% of homes on the rental market at the moment have reduced their prices by at least 10%.  This is of course due to the present economic conditions and the fact that there are many more flats, apartments and houses available and a lot of these have been reformed in the hope of attacting reliable tenants

PALMA’S TRAM IS COMING, BUT VERY SLOWLY!!!

At last the Central Government of Spain has agreed to put money towards the cost of building Palma’s city tram line. The Balearic authorities have signed an agreement whereby they receive 35 million euros each year towards the cost of building this city tram service – with a total government subsidy of 380 million euros awarded. The service will run from Palma out to the airport, on as far as El Arenal and then in a separate direction to Calvia. The annual payments will start this year.

Although satisfied with the first stage of the funding, Regional Transport Minister Gabriel Vicens, said that he was ‘disappointed’ that Central Government had not seen fit to sign over the total amount of their commitment to the project – 380 million euros – in one go. However, Vicens added, it does mean that the processing of all the paperwork and licenses necessary to get this building program off the ground, can be started by his department. Even then, the bureaucracy will take most of the upcoming year to complete.

It has been a worrying time for those concerned with this project because of the delays in getting the financial support from the Central Government which was paramount to its realisation. Vicens also added that some of the modifications proposed by Palma City Council had now been included in the blueprint.

Mallorca, the beginning

Interesting to not that Palma is in fact the only town in Mallorca that is actually on the sea.  Most others have the town just a few kilometers away from the coast and a ‘Port de’  being the port of the said town.  Apparently almost 2500 years of invasions has taught to people of Mallorca not to show their wealth or lack of it along the coastline.  There has been an incredible influx of people of varying nationalities which have left their mark on the Mallorcan people from the French who were driven here by hunger and poverty to those who came to conquer such as the Romans, Vandals and the Arabs, all leaving their traitson the island in a variety of forms, and especially in the architecture.

It is a known fact that the Mallorcan were well known as mercenaries thousands of years ago and their style of fighting is still now represented in the name of the three islands Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza.  The name Balearic stems from the Greek ‘ballein’ which meant ‘to throw a sling’ which apparently the Mallorcans were famous for using.  Their impertinence as pirates finally disturbed the ‘pax romana’ to such an extent that the Romans were forced to conquer the island, the first of the many conquerers on the island of Mallorca.

More interesting information next time.  I feel perhaps it is more interesting to find out and inform about Mallorca and all it has been and is now rather than go on about advertising.  So, that said I will be concentrating more on the island and its idiosyncracies.