"Being a property owner gives you opportunities or a standard of living that used to be achieved through work via a higher professional level," explains Sònia Vives-Miró, Doctor of Geography from the Universitat de les Illes Balears. "This social position depends more on homeownership than on other factors," she continues.
Amidst the housing crisis in the Balearic and Canary Islands, as well as in the rest of Spain, this expert states that "we are in a scenario called financialized capitalism" and that the place in the "social scale" is determined by "the ownership of assets, especially real estate."
Vives-Miró, who is responsible for several investigations on the housing situation in the Balearic Islands and is part of the Research Group on Sustainability and Territory (GIST) of the Balearic University, emphasizes that this reality is causing a "polarization of society, of cities," which are placed in "increasingly exaggerated extremes" with impoverished workers because they cannot afford a house and owners who live "very well" off the income from their homes.
With data from April 2025, the real estate portal pisos.com shows that only Madrid, Barcelona, and the Balearic Islands have higher rents than Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, and Fuerteventura. In this sense, Vives relates this phenomenon to the "degree of touristification" and the expansion of tourist housing, noting that "in the tourist islands, some territories are being more affected than others."
Specifically, she explains that although it is a "generalized" process, it occurs more strongly in areas closer to the coast and in the capitals of the islands. Thus, she adds that in the Balearic Islands, it began in the center of Palma de Mallorca, but that "it has been expanding, first through the tourist centers and then throughout the island." The Report 4 Islands 2024. Sustainability Indicators, which analyzes the reality of Lanzarote, La Palma, Ibiza, and Menorca, already warned that housing is "a priority social problem" and that difficulties in accessing it "affect the ability of workers" to settle.
The phenomenon of the impoverished worker
The professor of Geography explains that this new social reality surrounding homeownership is reflected in the disappearance of the middle classes. "Those middle classes that had many properties or several, are enriching themselves and placing themselves in higher positions in the social structure, while the middle class is falling to the point of questioning its existence."
Among her research works, the professor has been part of a working group that designed a census on inequality and rental prices in Ibiza or an analysis on how gentrification increases evictions and promotes expulsion from cities.
An example of this is the situation in Ibiza, where workers with a salary of 2,000 euros find it "increasingly difficult" to live on this salary. "In Ibiza, it is very difficult to find a home for 2,000 euros, if you have to live on rent, you cannot live with that, it is impossible," she adds.
Vives explains that this situation implies the "expulsion of residents who cannot pay the rent," but also that "the best-trained professionals do not want to move to islands like Ibiza or Formentera." On the smallest island of the Balearic Islands, teachers have to live in a hostel, according to the professor: "These are not dignified living conditions."
Currently, Lanzarote has a rate of social exclusion above Menorca and Ibiza. In addition, the impoverishment of the population is greater in the Canary Islands than in the Balearic Islands, as reported in the Report 4 Islands 2024. Sustainability Indicators.
The tourist moratorium in the Balearic Islands
At the beginning of 2022, the Balearic Islands implemented a tourist moratorium, with Francina Armengol (PSOE) as president. After three years, last April the Govern of Marga Phohens (Popular Party) opened the possibility that tourist places could be exchanged between hotels and vacation rentals, a measure that had been blocked until then. For the moment, the islands will not be able to grow more in tourist places.
Regarding the impact of the tourist tax, Vives states that "this type of process benefits some, but does not change the social conflict of housing." In this way, she indicates that "each of the actions causes very small and specific changes, but to solve the situation, a more global approach must be taken." For this, she proposes changes in fiscal and urban policies, among others.
In this sense, she advocates for eliminating tourist rentals to lower the price of housing, but also preventing access to the purchase of housing for non-resident foreigners. "Anything that lowers investment in housing as a financial asset can impact prices," she emphasizes. "That is precisely what has raised the price, foreign investment, so if it is limited, it can generate an impact on the price itself."
Regarding the tourist tax that has been charged for years in the Balearic Islands, she highlights that "now it is being considered to raise it because it is a very small tax that is by no means decisive on tourist demand and that in the end gives a large amount of money." Finally, the Balearic Government has not increased its ecotax after Vox's refusal to support a decree law with this tax.
Luxury tourism increases poverty in Ibiza
This reality that plagues the Balearic Islands extends throughout the year. "In Ibiza, what happens is that it is more polarized because luxury tourism is being developed, it is intensifying a lot." This luxury tourism is displacing family tourism and makes the situation on the island no longer complicated only in the summer season, but throughout the year.
Despite the arrival of luxury tourism, which has greater purchasing power, there is no decrease in visitors, because it is combined with nightclub tourists. "Luxury tourism does not bring a benefit to the population in general, the effect is precisely the opposite, and it raises prices even more," she emphasizes.
A context marked by housing speculation
The professor of Geography frames this situation within a bubble in rental prices. Thus, she places the beginning of the price escalation in rents in 2014. A bubble, which was added to the real estate bubble that grew in the mid-nineties and burst with the financial crisis of 2008.
"Since 2012, public policies have been implemented that created new instruments for the financialization of housing, to convert it into financial assets with many different mechanisms," she explains.
From that year, the figure of the Socimis (Listed public limited companies for investment in the real estate market) was developed, investors who are listed on the stock exchange and who invest in real estate assets. This figure "allowed the entry of investment funds, called vulture or transnational funds." To the entry of investment funds adds the rise of tourist housing in the so-called platform economies, such as Airbnb or Booking.
Currently, a final trend is added to this situation: real estate tokens. "From the sofa of your house, you can use your mobile to invest small amounts of money in homes that are in Hawaii or Honolulu," she explains. For the expert, it is essential to "regulate or not implement new mechanisms of this type to not escalate in the intensification of this model." To which she advises implementing more immediate measures such as the limitation of prices.