Renting a villa in Mallorca

Question 1

Which part of Mallorca suits which stay?

Accepted Answer

The south-west for outdoor living, the Tramuntana for the landscape, the middle for space, the north-east for beaches. Around Palma, from Bendinat to Port d'Andratx, you get the bays, the harbours and restaurants that stay open all year, with short runs between the house, the water and dinner. It is the area that asks the least organising. The Tramuntana, from Valldemossa through Sóller to Deià, holds the finest stone houses and the widest views on the island. Roads are narrow and full of bends, the sea is reached down steep descents, and people come for the setting as much as for the swimming. The middle, between Santa Maria and Campos, lines up farming estates with generous land and real quiet. The north-east, around Pollença and Alcúdia, brings together the sandy beaches and the calmest water on Mallorca, which makes it the easiest area with small children.

Question 2

Do distances on the island need thinking about?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it is the first difference from the other Balearic islands. Mallorca measures 3,640 km². A house in the Tramuntana and a house at Alcúdia can carry the same description and impose two unrelated holidays. Allow an hour and a half end to end, and more in summer on the mountain roads, where nobody overtakes. The practical consequence is one rule: pick the area first, the house second. A magnificent villa forty minutes from the beach you had in mind is not redeemed by any amount of equipment. The second point is the approach itself. Some of the finest properties sit at the end of a track, on a private lane that climbs steeply. A low car takes it slowly, a delivery lorry sometimes not at all. That is a question to ask before booking, never after.

Question 3

Can a villa be let legally on Mallorca?

Accepted Answer

It needs two things: a tourist stay licence and an entry in the register. Mallorca's ceiling has been fixed since February 2022. The places that come free arrive solely from owners who give theirs up, and are handed back out through a Consell de Mallorca pool that opens three times a year: 654 places in September 2025, roughly a thousand in March 2026, drawn by lot. Building a house therefore creates no entitlement to put guests in it. Palma went further. On 3 February 2026 the city closed every new tourist letting place across its whole territory, with no exception, having already closed apartment buildings back in 2018. The 4,473 places that exist there are now a fixed stock. The register itself has applied across the Balearics since 2 January 2026. Going without one places the breach among the gravest in the tourism code: fines open at 40,001 euros and a stay already under way can be halted. That check is run here before anything is put forward.

Question 4

When to book, and which season to choose?

Accepted Answer

Six to eight months ahead for high summer, a few weeks for everything else. Because the lettable stock no longer widens, the best weeks go from autumn onwards and a large share of them is renewed by the families already in the house. Looking in April for mid-August means choosing from what nobody else wanted, at any price at all. May, June, September and the first half of October give identical water, clear mountain passes and restaurants you can reach without a campaign plan. Almond blossom comes in February and the Sóller oranges are picked from January to March: Mallorca has a low season worth travelling for, which is not true everywhere in the Mediterranean. One thing to check for April and October: whether the pool is heated, and between which dates the heating actually runs. That detail decides how much of the house you use outside the two summer months.

Question 5

What has to be allowed for beyond the rent?

Accepted Answer

Three separate headings: getting around, staff ordered to taste, and the security deposit lodged when you commit. The rent covers the property in working order: routine cleaning, garden, pool, watching over it and preparing it between families. Anything that amounts to an individual human service, cooking, housekeeping, waiting at table, driving, is ordered separately and moves with how many people are there and how many meals are served. Getting around is the heading that catches people out on Mallorca. The island is crossed at the wheel, and ten travellers nearly always mean two or three cars, to be held as soon as the house is confirmed for summer. The run from Palma airport is billed on its own and varies fourfold depending on which municipality you are heading for. Last comes the Balearic stay tax, counted per person per night, higher between 1 May and 31 October.

Question 6

What does the Tramuntana change about a stay?

Accepted Answer

It gives the island its finest settings and sets the pace of the stay. The range has been a World Heritage site since 2011, not for its summits but for what people made of them: 30,745 hectares of terraces held up by dry-stone walls, with the channels, cisterns and mills that carry water down from the mountain. The olive trees stand on hand-built benches, tended since the Middle Ages. For a stay, that means houses with character, often old, with views matched nowhere else in the Balearics. It also means slow roads, villages with little parking, and a sea reached by coves rather than long beaches. Sóller, Deià, Valldemossa and Banyalbufar form the heart of the area. Puig Major rises to 1,445 m, which leaves a considerable drop between a terrace and the shore it looks down on.

Question 7

How do you find out what a house really looks at?

Accepted Answer

By asking for the orientation, the distance to the water and when the sun leaves the terrace. "Sea view" covers three very different situations: land that meets the shore, a property separated from the water by a public path, and a house that overlooks the sea from two hundred metres above without any way down. On Mallorca the third is the most common along the north-west coast. Orientation decides how a house is used. A west-facing terrace comes into its own from six in the evening until dark; an east-facing one belongs to breakfast and falls into shade by the afternoon. On an island where dinner is eaten outdoors from May to October, that single point separates two houses at the same price. Then the measurements: distance in metres to the water, the number of steps if there is a way down, and what the shore below is made of, sand, shingle or rock. Those three answers are worth more than a gallery of photographs.

Question 8

Mallorca or Ibiza for the same budget?

Accepted Answer

Two islands, two ways to spend the day, and the choice comes down to the programme. Ibiza sits on 572 km² and is crossed in under an hour. Everything is close, waterside restaurants are plentiful, and you can change your mind at midday for the same evening. It is the island of dense stays, where the area matters less than the address. Mallorca is six times larger and offers landscapes its neighbour does not have: a listed mountain range, fishing harbours, farming villages, sandy beaches in the north. Land is more generous for the same budget, and the house stands further from its neighbours. A group that wants to go out every evening gains from Ibiza. A family across three generations, or a fortnight that alternates sea, mountains and villages, gets more from Mallorca.

Mallorca villa rentals

Based in Mallorca, we know villas far beyond their addresses.

Villa Lirio

Do you have a question?

Every stay begins with a curated selection.

Selection.

Organisation & Confirmation.

Coordination.

Welcome & Care.

The value of a stay lies in the details

Bien-être

Personnel de maison

Transport

Gastronomie

Different way to enjoy Majorque

Entrusting your property requires a fair understanding of its worth