Buying Property on Mallorca: The Complete 2026 Guide to Process, Law, Taxes and Renting

The regions at a glance

Mallorca is not one homogeneous market but a dozen very different micro-worlds. Six criteria decide the location: driving time to Palma airport (PMI), whether the place lives in winter, the infrastructure (doctors, international schools, supermarkets), the character (international and glamorous versus authentic and Spanish), the landscape, and the legal usability (is holiday letting allowed or not). The table below sorts the main regions by lifestyle, not by price per square metre.

Two things shape every location decision. First, access from home: Palma (PMI) handled around 33.8 million passengers in 2025 and is Spain's third largest airport, with direct summer flights from almost every major German city and a much thinner schedule in winter. Second, holiday letting, which is regulated completely differently by municipality and property type. Anyone who wants to let has to choose the region accordingly, not the other way round (more on that in the chapter on the ETV licence).

One key point up front: the Golden Visa is gone

For a long time the rule was: buy a property for at least 500,000 euros and you got a Spanish residence permit (the "Golden Visa"). That is over. Since 3 April 2025 this route has been abolished by law (Ley Orgánica 1/2025), so a property purchase no longer grants any residence status. For you as a German or other EU citizen this is beside the point anyway: you enjoy full freedom of movement and, under EU law, may stay in Spain indefinitely (with a registration as an EU citizen from 90 days). The 90/180-day rule and the abolished Golden Visa only affect non-EU citizens.

Other restrictive ideas that made headlines in 2025 and 2026 are also reassuring for you: a discussed surcharge of up to 100 percent for non-EU buyers is so far only a draft and would exempt EU citizens, and a Balearic purchase ban for non-residents was rejected by the regional parliament on 24 February 2026. For a realistic first value of your preferred region, use our Mallorca valuation calculator, which holds a dedicated price corridor for more than 120 towns and zones.

Prepare before you make an offer

Do three things in parallel and early, because after the preliminary contract there is often only a tight window before the notary:

• Apply for the NIE: without the Spanish foreigner tax number (número de identidad de extranjero) there is no purchase, no bank account and no tax payment. The authority usually decides within a few days of receiving the application, but the appointment (cita previa on the island or at the consulate at home) can take weeks to months to secure. The official fee is around 10 euros (Modelo 790, código 012). The fastest route is often a power of attorney to your lawyer.
• Open a Spanish account: you need a non-resident account for the purchase price, taxes, costs and the bank-guaranteed cheque.
• Engage a lawyer: he starts the legal review (due diligence) straight away, which we describe in detail in the next chapter.

Reservation, arras and the notary

After the verbal agreement, a reservation contract (contrato de reserva or señal) often secures the property for one to four weeks, usually against 3,000 to 10,000 euros that count towards the price. Be careful: such reservation contracts are often already legally binding, so have them checked by a lawyer before you sign.

Once the checks are done comes the arras contract (contrato de arras), the private preliminary contract with a deposit of typically 10 percent. Insist that it is expressly labelled arras penitenciales under Article 1454 of the Código Civil. Only this form gives both sides a clean right to withdraw: if the buyer pulls out, he loses the deposit; if the seller pulls out, he repays it double. From the arras to the notary usually takes 30 to 60 days, and up to 90 with financing.

At the notary you sign the escritura pública de compraventa (the public deed of sale). The balance is paid by cheque bancario, a bank-guaranteed cheque from a Spanish bank (cash is not allowed, and issuing it takes a few days). A key difference from home: in Spain ownership passes on signing, not only on land-register entry. You get the keys immediately. The notary notifies the land register (Registro de la Propiedad) electronically; full registration then takes another three to eight weeks.

Buying from afar, and new builds

You do not have to travel. With a special power of attorney (poder notarial especial) that applies only to this one property, your lawyer handles everything. It is certified before a notary at home and needs a Hague apostille plus a sworn translation, so allow a few weeks. Never grant a general power of attorney.

If you buy a new build from a developer (off-plan), the developer must place each of your instalments in a special account and secure it with a bank guarantee (aval bancario) or insurance (a legal requirement under the LOE, Ley 38/1999, reformed by Ley 20/2015). If that guarantee is missing, do not pay: without it, your instalment is lost if the developer becomes insolvent.

The Nota Simple and the charges

Every review starts with the Nota Simple, the extract from the land register (Registro de la Propiedad). It costs around 9 euros online, should never be more than three months old, and is best pulled twice: on serious interest and again a few days before the notary appointment. It shows the owner, the registered area and, above all, the charges (cargas): mortgages (hipotecas), seizures (embargos) and easements (servidumbres). A mortgage is not a problem, it is redeemed from the purchase price at the notary. A seizure, by contrast, takes priority and must be lifted before transfer.

Separately, you must check the debts that attach to the property (afección real). For unpaid property tax (IBI), the municipality can demand the current plus the previous year directly from you as the new owner (under the tax authority's current criterion, up to four years if the seller is insolvent). For unpaid community fees (comunidad de propietarios) you are liable for the current plus the three preceding years. So before signing, demand three "estar al corriente" certificates: from the community, from the municipality for the IBI, and the last paid utility bills.

Habitability, permits and the cadastre

The cédula de habitabilidad (habitation certificate) is valid for ten years. It does not block the transfer (the buyer may waive it), but you need it to connect water, electricity, gas and telecoms for good, and it should be in place for a sale or a let. For new builds, since 22 July 2022 the municipal licencia de primera ocupación has replaced the former island cédula; the licencia de obra, in turn, authorises the building itself, which is not the same as being ready to occupy.

Compare the registered area from the Nota Simple with the cadastre (Catastro) and with reality on site. If the figures differ, that is a warning sign of unregistered extensions. Up to a 10 percent deviation a notarial correction suffices; beyond that you need a georeferenced representation. For older buildings (a condition assessment from 30 years, a mandatory report from 50 years) ask the town hall for the ITE or IEE status; a missing or negative report can trigger expensive renovation duties. The energy certificate (CEE) is mandatory for a sale; if it is missing or falsified, tiered fines of 300 to 6,000 euros apply.

Land classification

Plots are either urbano (buildable), urbanizable (buildable in future) or rústico (rural, in principle not buildable). Within rústico there are protected categories; the highest protection class is AANP, with ANEI among the highest just behind, and there new builds are effectively excluded. For a legal new build on ordinary rústico, high minimum plot sizes apply depending on the category, often 14,000 square metres and sometimes up to 50,000, usually only one dwelling per plot, and the plot generally has to have been formed before 16 July 1997. Anyone buying a finca in order to build on it or extend it must clear that legally beforehand, not afterwards.

Illegal builds: the most expensive misunderstanding

Extensions, pools or whole houses without a permit (obra nueva sin licencia) are common in the countryside. Such builds count as "fuera de ordenación" and may often only be maintained, not extended or repurposed. Important for 2026: while the sanction for a serious breach lapses after eight years, the order to demolish or restore no longer lapses since Ley 7/2024 (in force since 11 December 2024) only on protected rústico (rústico protegido); on ordinary rústico común it is once again subject to a limitation period. So have the exact status checked by a lawyer, because the distinction decides your risk.

A dangerous trap: an entry in the land register as "obra nueva por antigüedad" only proves the age and ownership of a building. It does not make it legal and does not protect against demolition. Registered is not the same as legalised. So check each element separately, house, pool, guest house, garage, for its year of construction and its permit.

Resale property: the progressive ITP

When buying a resale property, the Balearic ITP (Impuesto sobre Transmisiones Patrimoniales) applies, staged progressively since 1 January 2023. Important: each band is taxed at its own rate, there is no flat rate on the whole price and no 11 percent band any more.

One decisive point for the tax: the base is not automatically your price but the higher of the price and the valor de referencia, the official reference value of the cadastre. So check it in advance via the cadastre portal. What the valor de referencia means as distinct from the market value is put in context by our Mallorca valuation calculator.

New build: IVA and AJD instead of ITP

For a new build from a developer, there is no ITP but 10 percent VAT (IVA) plus the stamp duty AJD (Actos Jurídicos Documentados). The standard AJD rate in the Balearics is 1.5 percent, rising to 2 percent from a property value of one million euros; there are reduced rates for owner homes below the value cap. The AJD on any mortgage, by the way, has been paid by the bank since 2019, not by you.

On top come the smaller items: notary (around 600 to 1,000 euros), land register (around 400 to 650 euros), gestoría (around 300 to 500 euros) and your lawyer (usually around 1 percent plus VAT). A printable list of every step and document is in our purchase checklist to download further up in this guide.

Rates, costs and a common mistake

The interest environment in mid-2026 as a guide: the 12-month Euribor is around 2.8 percent, its highest level since 2024, and the ECB raised its policy rates in mid-June 2026 for the first time in almost three years, so the deposit rate has stood at 2.25 percent since then. Non-residents pay a premium: a fixed rate realistically starts closer to 3 percent, variable often at Euribor plus 1 to 1.5 percentage points, with terms usually up to 20 to 25 years. Treat these figures as a snapshot, not a promise.

Since the Spanish mortgage law (Ley 5/2019), the bank bears the AJD on the mortgage as well as the notary, land register and gestoría for the loan; you pay only the tasación. The comisión de apertura (arrangement fee, 0 to 1.5 percent) remains negotiable. Important against a common mistake: the AJD on the mortgage is a different item from the ITP on the purchase, do not confuse the two. Banks also tempt you with rate discounts (bonificaciones) in return for add-on products such as a salary account or insurance, often only by a few tenths of a point per policy, so do the maths honestly.

The imputed income tax (Modelo 210)

If you use the property yourself and do not let it, Spain still imputes a notional use value (renta imputada) to you and taxes it via the Modelo 210. The base is usually 1.1 percent of the valor catastral (2 percent only if the cadastral value has not been revised in a general revaluation with effect from 1 January 2012), taxed at 19 percent for EU residents. Example: 300,000 euros valor catastral times 1.1 percent is 3,300 euros, of which 19 percent is about 627 euros a year, due by 31 December of the following year. If you let, the rental income is taxed instead (19 percent on the net income for EU residents, with deductible costs; the annual return is filed in January).

Wealth tax: usually no worry, but claim the choice

Spanish wealth tax (Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio) hits non-residents only on their net assets located in Spain. The state allowance is 700,000 euros. What matters, though, is a choice: EU residents may elect the rules of the region where their assets lie, and for Mallorca that means the Balearics, with an allowance of 3,000,000 euros per person (since 1 January 2024). A typical buyer of an 800,000-euro flat therefore pays effectively no wealth tax, provided he actively makes this election. Note: the additional 300,000-euro allowance for a main home does not apply to a second home. Only from around 3 to 3.7 million euros of Spanish net assets does the state solidarity tax on large fortunes (Impuesto de Solidaridad de las Grandes Fortunas) come into play, against which the wealth tax paid is credited.

Do not forget the German side

As a taxpayer resident in Germany, your worldwide income is subject to the German tax office. Your Spanish property income feeds in via the double taxation treaty between Germany and Spain (2011). Unlike most EU countries, Spanish property does not use exemption with progression but the credit method: your Spanish rental income and capital gains are fully taxable in Germany, and the tax paid in Spain is credited. If you let, the income belongs in the German Anlage V; deductible Spanish costs need receipts. This is a classic case for your German tax adviser and Spanish asesor fiscal to work together, so settle it early rather than at filing time.