Buying to Let Long-Term in Mallorca

This guide covers the long-term side of renting property in Mallorca: a letting of more than 30 days, governed by Spain's residential tenancy law (the LAU) rather than the tourist-rental ETV regime. If you're weighing short-term/holiday letting instead, see our Holiday Rentals in Mallorca report, and for a walkthrough of the fundamentals in article form, our Long-Term Rentals in Mallorca post.

Legal: the LAU and the tenant's minimum term

Once a letting runs longer than 30 days, it falls under the LAU (Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos) rather than the tourist-rental framework; no ETV licence needed, but a formal lease contract is required. The LAU gives the tenant a statutory minimum term: typically 5 years if you're letting as an individual landlord, or 7 years if letting through a company. A tenant can insist on staying for that full period; a landlord can't contract around it downward, and can only end the lease early for defined legal causes (non-payment, needing it for a close family member, and similar), not simply preferring not to renew.

Contractual: what a compliant lease needs, and the IBAVI deposit step

A compliant LAU lease is a written contract identifying landlord, tenant, property, rent, term and deposit. The deposit (fianza) itself is capped by law at one month's rent for housing, two months' for non-housing.

The step most owners in the Balearics miss: that deposit can't just sit with the landlord. It has to be formally registered with IBAVI (Institut Balear de l'Habitatge / Instituto Balear de la Vivienda). In practice that means:

• Within 30 working days of signing the lease, submit Modelo F-1 to IBAVI.
• Include proof of payment of the deposit and a copy of the signed contract alongside the form.
• Missing this draws a fine of €60–€3,000; treat the 30-working-day clock as starting the moment the contract is signed, not when it's convenient to get to it.

Taxes: resident vs non-resident, EU vs non-EU

A tax-resident landlord (broadly, 183+ days a year in Spain, but not the only test; see Spanish Tax Residency) declares rental income through their annual IRPF return along with worldwide income, and can deduct allowable expenses: mortgage interest, IBI, repairs, and more.

A non-resident landlord files via Modelo 210 (IRNR), and the rate depends on nationality:

• EU/EEA non-residents: 19% tax on net income: repairs, IBI, insurance, management fees and mortgage interest are all deductible, pro-rated for days actually let.
• Non-EU/non-EEA non-residents (UK nationals included, post-Brexit): 24% tax on gross income: no deductions allowed at all, a materially worse position worth factoring into any yield calculation up front.

Income declarations: the annual filing, and a deadline shift coming

Since 2024, non-resident rental income filing moved from quarterly declarations to a single annual one via Modelo 210. The filing window is also changing: it's been 20 January, but from the 2026 tax year (filed in 2027) it shifts to 1–20 April, under Order HAC/623/2026, worth noting now if you're budgeting for when that tax bill lands.

Don't leave it empty between tenants

A long-term let that sits vacant between tenancies is a real target, not a theoretical one. Spain's anti-okupa reform, Ley Orgánica 1/2025 (in force since April 2025), gives owners two routes: if an occupation is caught within roughly the first 48 hours (flagrante delito, an ongoing break-in, caught on camera or by a witness), police can remove the occupants directly without a court order. Beyond that window, it takes the fast-track civil eviction process (desahucio exprés) or a criminal usurpación complaint; the reform targets resolving these in as little as 15 days in the best case, though a backlogged court can still take considerably longer. That replaced a previous system that could run to two years, and since February 2026 the pandemic-era eviction moratorium is officially over too.

The Balearics specifically have seen this hit harder than most of Spain: occupations here rose 73.9% in a single earlier period against an 18% national rise, and per Idealista the islands have had as many as 474 occupied properties for sale in a single quarter, one of the highest regional concentrations anywhere in the country. A property under an active, LAU-compliant lease with its IBAVI deposit on file is a considerably harder target to successfully claim was "abandoned" or unused, which is often the legal test an usurpación claim turns on, a genuine practical argument for keeping a property let rather than sitting empty between tenants.

Recent, named cases from the Majorca Daily Bulletin give a sense of scale:

• Payments of €150,000 to get squatters out of Mallorca luxury villas (17 May 2026): around 200 luxury villas occupied since the prior summer, with owners reportedly paying "ransom" sums to get squatters to leave.
• Organised squatting gangs targeting Mallorca's resorts in winter (26 February 2026): organised gangs occupying apartment blocks in tourist resorts over the off-season, when properties typically sit empty, then illegally sub-letting them.
• Mallorca squatters: Fight over the best flat in Palma (25 February 2025): a would-be-squatter gang fighting among itself over which of four flats in a Son Oliva block to occupy, alerting neighbours in the process.

For more on tenancy fundamentals in article form, see our Long-Term Rentals in Mallorca post, and for the tourist-rental side of the picture, Holiday Rentals in Mallorca. For quick answers to common questions, see our Mallorca property FAQ.

This isn't legal or tax advice; verify specifics with a local gestor or abogado before acting. Sources: IBAVI (Govern de les Illes Balears), rental deposits (fianzas), Agencia Tributaria, Modelo 210 filing deadlines, BOE, Orden HAC/623/2026, BOE, Ley Orgánica 1/2025, and the Majorca Daily Bulletin articles linked above.