Santa Ponsa is the one address on this coast with a working town behind it: a health centre, a year-round market, schools ten minutes away, three golf courses and two marinas. It also has the deepest supply of long term villas. From one month.
Santa Ponca is the largest population centre in Calvia, with around 12,000 residents, and that changes what a long stay actually feels like. There is a Saturday market on Avinguda d’es Hort that runs all year, a public health centre open until eight on weekdays, a private clinic with a doctor available around the clock, and enough restaurants that a reasonable number of them are still open in January. The areas further west cannot say that.
It is a town of two halves and it is worth being honest about which is which. The main bay is a mid-market resort strip of bars and hotels. The villa neighbourhoods, Nova Santa Ponsa and the hillsides towards El Toro, are a different proposition: larger plots, golf frontage, sea views, and increasingly where new villas get built in the south west.
Golf. Golf Santa Ponsa I is an 18-hole par 72 over 6,543 metres and the course visitors can play, subject to booking and a handicap. Courses II and III are for members and their guests.
Marinas. Club Nautico Santa Ponsa has 522 moorings for boats up to 20 metres. Port Adriano, a few minutes west at El Toro, is the Philippe Starck redesign completed in 2012, and it takes superyachts.
Palma is about 20 kilometres and roughly 25 minutes; the airport about 30 kilometres and 30 minutes. Further out than Portals or Illetas, which you notice on a daily commute but not on a weekly one.
Schools. Baleares International College’s senior campus at Sa Porrassa is about ten minutes. Agora Portals International School and King Richard III College are around fifteen. The German and Swedish schools in Palma are roughly twenty.
Beaches. Santa Ponsa has a proper beach, roughly half a kilometre of golden sand with calm shallow water, which none of the areas closer to Palma can offer. Calo d’en Pellisser and Cala Blanca are the quieter alternatives, and the Malgrats marine reserve offshore is the local diving and snorkelling spot.
Everyday. A public health centre on Carrer del Riu Sil, a private clinic with a 24-hour doctor, supermarkets, the Saturday market, and a real winter population. If you are renting October to April, this is the easiest place on the coast to actually live.
Every villa is let furnished and equipped, with a minimum stay of one month.
Utilities are normally metered and billed separately, and cleaning frequency varies by villa. We confirm exactly what is included before anything is signed.
Santa Ponsa is the best value on this coast and has the most choice. Four and five bedroom villas are advertised from around €5,000 per month, with most of the market between €7,000 and €15,000 and the largest golf-front and sea-view properties up to around €20,000. There is roughly four times as much long term villa stock here as in Portals Nous.
One month. Santa Ponsa has more long term stock than anywhere else on this coast, so it is usually the easiest area to find something at short notice.
It depends entirely on where in Santa Ponsa. The main bay is a mid-market resort strip and busy in summer. The villa neighbourhoods, Nova Santa Ponsa and the hillsides towards El Toro, are quiet residential streets with golf frontage and sea views. Santa Ponsa is also not part of the Balearic government's tourism-of-excesses zone, which covers Magaluf but not here.
Four and five bedroom villas start around €5,000 per month, with most of the market between €7,000 and €15,000. The largest golf-front and sea-view properties reach around €20,000. Entry prices are lower here than anywhere else on this coast.
More than its neighbours do. The permanent population of around 12,000, the year-round Saturday market, the health centre and the international residential community keep a good share of restaurants and shops trading through the winter. Beachfront hotels and package-holiday businesses do close.
Palma city centre is about 20 kilometres and roughly 25 minutes by car. The airport is about 30 kilometres and around 30 minutes, straight down the Ma-1.
