U.S. enters Mallorca with record number of tourists and investments in luxury homes

U.S. enters Mallorca with record number of tourists and investments in luxury homes

The connections of the American market with the Balearic territory are increasingly strong. To the record number of tourist visits last year with the activation of the New York-Palma route, it is worth adding a growing interest in real estate investment which, among other things, led to the landing in Mallorca of The Agency, a prestigious luxury real estate agency in the United States recently popularized through a Netflix docudrama. The opening of the Portals Nous franchise, the agency’s first in Spain, took place last week in the midst of a debate on the possibility of limiting home sales to foreigners to curbthe rise in real estate prices in the Balearic Islands. A seemingly hostile scenario that did not stop the implementation of the project.

“It seems unlikely to me that this will ever happen,” says franchise director Alby Euesden, who acknowledges, however, that the headlines may worry investors. Although the College of Registrars does not offer data broken down by community, state statistics prove the growing interest of investors in Spain, which doubled last year (from 534 to 1,046). Its roadmap is to operate in the Ponent region, focusing on selected areas of Palma, Calvià and Andratx. The American client, logically, will be the priority, even if the agency will work with all kinds of nationalities, especially the Germans and the British most inclined to real estate investment on the island.

Euesden, who was born in the UK but has lived in the Balearic Islands since childhood, says that his journey and that of The Agency came together at a time when the company was looking to consolidate its expansion in Europe. Mallorca has thus become the new base of operations for a company that already operates in a dozen countries and has chosen the island as its gateway to Spain despite other options such as Madrid, Barcelona or Marbella.

On the other hand, the commitment to Mallorca is based on the growing interest of the American public in the islands, whose popularity factors such as their condition as a set for Hollywood productions, the presence of Michael Douglas or the opening of Son Bunyola, the new hotel of Richard Branson in the Tramuntana (the British millionaire is another well-known figure in the United States). “I realized that I was hearing more and more people with American accents in restaurants and other places in Palma,” says Euesden, referring to the reasons that led him to contact the Agency.

But if there was one factor that was truly decisive, it was the opening of the New York-Palma route, which pushed U.S. visits to 167,930 arrivals in 2022. The figure exceeds the pre-pandemic records but remains well below those of the main source markets of the Balearic Islands. Overall, the United Airlift and its impact on the U.S. connection has been a source from which the growing real estate interest in the islands has drawn. Moreover, the success of this route has led this year to extend the flight period from May to October (in 2022 it was limited to June to September).

Economic ties are growing stronger on both sides of the Atlantic and with these ingredients, it is no coincidence that Mallorca was the place chosen by Turespaña to hold the support for the marketing of Spanish destinations on the American and Canadian markets from April 18 to 20. North American travel agents and tour operators interested in marketing Spanish tourism products and services will participate in the event.