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Palma · report

Buy or rent in Palma

Renting a 90 m² home costs less each month than owning it. Owning counts interest, running costs and the return the deposit could earn, at the appraised value; rent is the mean of new leases. Repaying the loan is saving, so it is left out.

Rent per month
€1,056
Owning per month
€1,215

Try your own numbers

Starting from the average appraised value of €3,815/m², and the mean rent of leases signed in 2024, €11.7/m² a month, in Palma, and a mortgage rate of 3.0%.

Assumptions
90
3
1
Property tax (IBI), insurance, maintenance and the community of owners.
3
What the deposit and purchase costs could earn if invested instead.
7
Transfer tax or VAT, stamp duty, notary and land registry, paid once.

Renting costs less each month than owning.

Rent a month
€1,056
Owning a month, not recovered
€1,204
Interest
€772
Running costs
€286
Return given up
€146
Cash out a month, if buying
€1,589

The comparison counts only the costs of owning you never get back: interest, running costs and what the deposit and purchase costs could earn elsewhere. Loan repayments build equity, so they are left out. So is any rise in the home's value, because nobody knows it in advance. Rents here are the mean rent of leases signed in the year, from landlords' income tax returns (AEAT); prices are appraised values, not sale prices.

Other reports for Palma

At the average appraised value, a 90 m² home costs €343,305. With 10% down and a 30-year mortgage, the payment is €1,309 a month. Spain sets no cap on the payment; lenders must assess each borrower's solvency.

Payment, two incomes
36%
Payment, one income
71%

Figures for Illes Balears province: Palma has no reliable figures of its own.

31.3% more homes were licensed for construction in the last 12 months than in an average year of the past decade.

Licensed, 12 months
4,086

Figures for Illes Balears province: Palma has no reliable figures of its own.

Buyers living abroad bought 22.4% of the homes sold here in the four quarters to Q2 2026.

Bought by buyers abroad, 12 months
22.4%

Appraised values have fallen by 3% or more once since 2005. That fall began in Q1 2008.

Deepest fall
−47.8%
Recovery from the low
120 months

4.9% of the 186,482 homes counted in the 2021 census stood empty, whether for sale, to let or for other reasons.

Empty, 2021 census
4.9%
Empty homes
9,187