The figures of the seventh and last payment of the 2024 rental subsidies once again reveal a reality that is repeated every year: Ibiza and Formentera are practically left out of these subsidies, despite being the islands with the greatest problem of access to housing in the Balearic Islands. The Govern has distributed a total of 9.26 million euros among 3,942 beneficiaries, but the distribution by islands again shows a profound inequality.
While Mallorca concentrates 6.6 million and Menorca 1.6 million -with 2,862 and 732 beneficiaries respectively-, Ibiza only receives 780,000 euros for 291 people. In Formentera the figure is even lower: only 141,300 euros and 57 beneficiaries.
Rent cannot exceed 900 euros
Why do Ibiza and Formentera, where rental prices are the highest in the archipelago, receive so little? From the Conselleria de Vivienda they explain that the key is in the own state regulation that regulates these aids.
The calls of the State Housing Plan, managed and financed in part by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, only allow to subsidize rents up to 900 euros per month. This ceiling, which does not depend on the Govern, automatically leaves out the vast majority of tenants in Ibiza and Formentera, where finding housing below that amount is practically impossible.
Official sources of the Conselleria clarify that “the limit of 900 euros is established by the Ministry and affects especially Ibiza and Formentera, where there are fewer and fewer homes below that price. It is something that we have demanded on numerous occasions to the central government”.
The Conselleria insists that this problem is not new and that the Conseller José Luis Mateo has denounced it publicly on repeated occasions.
Menorca, the island with the highest number of beneficiaries for the second consecutive year
The contrast with Menorca is remarkable: 732 beneficiaries compared to 291 in Ibiza, despite having less population and more moderate prices. According to the Conselleria, this is explained precisely because in Menorca there are still houses with prices eligible for aid, contrary to what happens in the Pitiusas.
State regulations thus penalize the islands with the most stressed real estate markets: the higher the rental price, the lower the access to public aid.
The Govern calls for raising the limit in the next State Housing Plan
The Conselleria claims to have repeatedly asked the Ministry that the new State Housing Plan 2026-2030 -currently under negotiation- raise the limit of 900 euros to adapt it to the Balearic reality.
The objective is to allow thousands of families in Ibiza and Formentera to finally have access to these aids. For now, the decision depends exclusively on the central government.
Continue reading:
-
Real estate companies demand urban planning guarantees in the largest housing plan in the Balearic Islands
-
Buying in Ibiza, increasingly difficult: used housing prices are close to 7,600 euros per square meter
-
Sant Antoni approves record budget that sets date for the start of housing at limited prices
-
Home mortgages rise 17.6% in the Balearic Islands in September, above the national average
-
Ibavi will build eight public housing units in the old Mercat Pagès: this is what the new development for residents in Ibiza will be like.
