Moving to Mallorca? Furnished villas in the south west from one month, so you can live in an area before you commit to buying in it. This page covers where expats actually settle, and why.
The most expensive mistake people make on this island is buying in the first six months. Areas that look interchangeable on a map are not interchangeable to live in. Bendinat and Portals Nous are two kilometres apart and one of them you can walk around. Port d’Andratx in August and Port d’Andratx in January are different places entirely.
Six to twelve months in a furnished villa costs a fraction of what a wrong purchase costs, and it lets you make the decision with a winter behind you rather than a holiday. Every estate agent on the island will tell you the same thing privately. We just say it on the website.
The strip of coast between Palma and Andratx concentrates most of what makes relocation practical: the international schools, the marinas, the golf, the hospitals, and a drive into Palma that stays under forty minutes from anywhere in it. It is also where the international community already is, which matters more in the first year than anyone admits.
Around fifteen minutes to the city centre, twenty to the airport, and beaches you reach on foot. There is a city bus into Palma. The trade-off is price: Cas Català and Illetas are among the most expensive addresses in the south west, and the plots are smaller than further west.
Both international schools sit in Portals Nous: Agora Portals, the only IB continuum school in the Balearics, and King Richard III College, British curriculum to A Level. Bendinat next door is quieter and greener, built around a golf course, and needs a car for everything. Portals Nous is the walkable one.
The only area on this coast with a proper town behind it. A health centre open till eight, a private clinic with a doctor around the clock, a year-round Saturday market, a real beach, three golf courses and two marinas. Santa Ponsa also has the most long term rental stock and the lowest entry prices, and it is the easiest place here to spend a January.
Port d’Andratx is the most beautiful corner of the island and the most demanding. Thirty-five minutes to Palma, no international school in the municipality, and a substantial share of the restaurants closed from November to March. For couples, retirees and remote workers it is unbeatable. For a family arriving in September it usually is not.
The south west has an unusual concentration of international schools, which is the main reason families cluster here.
Places at the popular schools go early. If your move depends on a particular school, secure the place first and choose the area around it. It is the one decision that should drive the others.
Son Espases, the main public hospital, is in Palma and reachable in ten to twenty minutes from most of the south west. Calvia and Andratx both have public health centres, with smaller basic units in the villages. Private clinics are widely available, and in Santa Ponsa there is a private practice with a doctor available around the clock.
You will want a car. Illetas and Cas Català are the exceptions, with a city bus into Palma roughly every quarter of an hour. Everywhere else, assume one car per working adult.
Expect to be asked for identification, evidence of income or means, and a deposit. Rental agreements in Spain take more than one form depending on the length of stay and the use of the property, and which applies to you depends on your circumstances.
We will tell you plainly which form an owner is proposing and what it commits you to. For anything longer than six months, have your own lawyer or gestor read it before you sign. The same goes for residency, tax and importing a car: we can point you at people who do this daily, and we will not pretend to do it ourselves.
Tell us your dates, your budget per month and whether there are children and which school, and we will come back inside 24 hours. Start on the contact page, or browse the villas first.
A few of the villas currently available for long stays.
Six to twelve months, and ideally including a winter. Areas change character completely between August and February, and that is the difference you are paying to discover before you commit to a purchase.
One month for every villa in our collection. Most people relocating take six or twelve.
Portals Nous and Bendinat, because both international schools in this part of the island are in Portals Nous itself. Santa Ponsa is about ten minutes from Baleares International College's senior campus. Port d'Andratx has no school in the municipality, so it means a drive of twenty to thirty-five minutes each way.
Almost certainly. Illetas and Cas Catala are the exception, with a city bus into Palma roughly every fifteen minutes. Everywhere else, assume one car per working adult.
Yes, all of them, including kitchen equipment, linen and towels, with the Wi-Fi connected. It is the whole point of renting this way while you decide where to settle.
For four to six bedroom villas, roughly €5,000 to €25,000 depending on the area. Santa Ponsa is the entry point and Illetas, Cas Catala and Port d'Andratx the higher end.
Some owners allow it and some do not, and it is worth saying at the first email rather than the last. It narrows the shortlist, and we would rather narrow it early.
We can introduce you to a lawyer, a gestor and an accountant who work with international clients every day. We will not advise on it ourselves, because getting it wrong is expensive and it is not what we are qualified for.
