Author Dmitry Sheynkman Residence permit expert, tax adviser 15 September 2026 12 min read Message the author

Legal review by Irina Firsova, member of the Barcelona Bar Association no. 46.385 — check the ICAB register ↗

Moving to Mallorca in 2026: where to live, prices and taxes

You can move to Mallorca on any basis for a Spanish residence permit; the most common are the digital nomad visa and the non-working residence permit. The island has clear strengths: summer unemployment is the lowest in Spain, salaries are above average, inheritance tax for close relatives is effectively zero, and transport is free for residents. In exchange you get the most expensive housing in the country, seasonal work, Catalan at school and a small Russian-speaking community. Below we cover which residence permit to choose, how to move step by step, where to live on the island, how much housing costs, which taxes apply in the Balearic Islands, what to expect from schools, work and safety, and how Mallorca differs from Barcelona and Málaga.

Moving to Mallorca: answers to the key questions

Can you move there? Yes, with an ordinary Spanish residence permit. There is no separate “island” residence permit; applications go to the immigration office of the Balearic Islands in Palma.
Which residence permit is most common? Remote workers take the digital nomad visa: income from €2,849 a month. People living on savings and passive income take the non-working residence permit: from €2,400 a month for the applicant.
How much does housing cost? The Balearic Islands are the most expensive province in Spain: in August 2026 a flat in Palma cost on average €5,522 per square metre, more than in Barcelona. Rent is €19.3/m² a month.
What is the climate like? Mediterranean: an annual average of 16.5 °C, 9.5 °C in January, 25.1 °C in August and 2,756 hours of sunshine.
Do you need Catalan? Not for the residence permit or everyday life. But it is the second official language, and at least half of lessons in state schools are taught in it.
Is there a discount on flights? The 75% discount on flights for island residents is available to EU citizens, their family members and long-term residents. With a temporary residence permit you generally do not get it for the first five years.
Straight to permanent residence? No. First a temporary residence permit; long-term residence comes after five years of legal residence.

Which residence permit to get for living in Mallorca

The route is chosen by your source of income. After arrival, applications go to the immigration office of the Balearic Islands (Oficina de Extranjería) in Palma by appointment (cita previa), and fingerprints for the residence card are taken by the National Police. A comparison of all routes is in the article Spanish residence permit: all the ways to get one.

Route	Who it suits	Income or funds	Can you work
Digital nomad visa	Remote employees and freelancers with clients outside Spain	From €2,849 a month, plus €1,069 for the first family member and €356 for each additional one	Yes, for foreign clients
Non-working residence permit	People living on savings, rental income, dividends or a pension	From €2,400 a month (€28,800 a year) plus €600 a month for each family member	No, including remotely
Employment	Those with a job offer from a Spanish employer, including in tourism and hospitality	Salary under the contract	Yes, for that employer
Study	University and course students, including at the University of the Balearic Islands	Funds for the period of study	Up to 30 hours a week
Settlement (arraigo)	Those who have already lived in Spain for two years	Depends on the type of arraigo	Yes

The digital nomad visa threshold is linked to the minimum wage and in 2026 it rose retroactively; details are in our news piece on the income threshold for the digital nomad visa. After five years on any of these routes you can obtain permanent residence in Spain, and after ten you can apply for citizenship. A tourist visiting the island only needs a Schengen visa; the rules are in the article do you need a visa for the Canary Islands, Mallorca and Ibiza.

How to move to Mallorca: step by step

Choose a route and check that you meet the income requirement for the whole family.
Decide where to apply: through the Spanish consulate in your country or, if the route allows it, from within Spain. The digital nomad visa can be obtained while already legally in Spain — in that case the residence permit is issued straight away for up to three years.
Gather documents: apostilled criminal record certificates, proof of income, health insurance, sworn translations into Spanish.
Arrive and rent a home. Short-term rental is more convenient for the first months; a long-term lease is easier to sign once you have the residence permit decision. How to look for a flat is in the article how to rent a flat in Spain.
Register with the city council — empadronamiento (municipal registration). In Palma you need an identity document and a lease or the owner’s authorisation, and you apply by appointment. Without registration you cannot enrol a child in school or get a health card and a free travel pass.
Give fingerprints and collect your residence card (TIE) at the police station.
Sort out healthcare. Foreigners get the IB-Salut health card (TSI) with their NIE, passport, registration certificate and a photo, if they are entitled to healthcare through the Seguridad Social (Spanish social security); the card is valid for four years. The non-working residence permit requires private insurance from a Spanish company — which policy works and what it costs.
Get the Targeta Única — a single card for the island’s trains, metro and buses: it is issued free of charge to residents of the Balearic Islands, including registered foreigners.
Open a bank account, enrol the children in school, sort out taxes. Once you have lived in Spain for more than 183 days in a year you become a tax resident — taxes in Spain for individuals.

Mallorca in figures: compared with Barcelona and Málaga

To see where Mallorca stands among the Mediterranean options, we compare it with Barcelona and Málaga.

Housing in Palma is more expensive than in Barcelona, and in summer there is more work than in any other region of Spain. Unemployment: the Balearic Islands and the provinces of Barcelona and Málaga; tax rate: the regional part, excluding the state part.

Where to live in Mallorca: Palma districts and island towns

Palma is the capital of the Balearic Islands and home to 434,786 people, almost half of Mallorca’s residents. Prices by district, according to Idealista for August 2026:

Son Vida — the most expensive district, €8,552/m².
Portixol–Molinar — €7,943/m², up 7.5% year on year.
Historic centre (Ciutat Antiga) — €7,366/m², up 10.8% year on year.
Santa Catalina–Son Armadans–Marítim — €6,311/m².
The most affordable — Rafal–Son Forteza (€3,654/m²), Son Oliva–Camp Redó (€3,790/m²) and Llevant–La Soledat (€3,797/m², up 23% year on year).

Outside the capital:

Calvià — 53,793 residents in the south-west of the island, one in three a foreigner, mostly Britons and Germans. The British school King Richard III College is here, in Portals Nous.
Marratxí — 40,422 residents next to Palma, with the British school The Academy International School; conventional crime per 1,000 residents is 2.5 times lower than in Palma.
Inca and Manacor — 36,262 and 49,153 residents, inland centres of the island with their own public hospitals; Manacor grew by 2.9% in 2024, faster than the other large towns.
Llucmajor — 40,502 residents.
Alcúdia, Pollença, Sóller, Andratx — resort towns with 12,000 to 22,000 residents.

You can compare Palma with other cities on rent and income in the ranking of Spanish cities and on the relocation map. The island itself, its beaches, climate and sights are described in the guide Mallorca.

Cost of living in Mallorca

Buying a home. According to Idealista, in August 2026 the Balearic Islands were the most expensive province in Spain at €5,595/m². Palma stood at €5,522/m², up 4.9% year on year: 1.5% more than Barcelona, 40% more than Málaga and almost twice the Spanish average (€2,924/m²).
Rent. €19.3/m² a month in Palma, up 5.9% year on year: the third most expensive provincial capital after Madrid and Barcelona. At this rate a 70 m² flat costs about €1,350 a month.
No rent cap. The Balearic government has not declared any stressed rental market areas, so landlords set the rent for new leases themselves.
Tourist lets. Under Decree-law 4/2025 of the Balearic Islands, new tourist flats in apartment buildings are banned, new tourist places in Mallorca are frozen, and fines for illegal letting reach €500,000. You cannot buy a flat in an apartment building to let it to tourists.
Free transport. In 2026 trains, the metro and TIB intercity buses are free for island residents with the Targeta Única for the fourth year running; according to TIB, this also covers Palma’s city buses.
Minimum budget. The residence permit requirements give a benchmark: for living without working, from €2,400 a month for one person; for the digital nomad visa, from €2,849.

Taxes in Mallorca and the Balearic Islands

The Balearic Islands have their own regional part of income tax and their own taxes on buying a home, inheritance and wealth.

IRPF. The regional scale runs from 9% to 24.75%: in the lower brackets it is milder than in Catalonia (9.5–25.5%) and Andalusia (9.5–22.5%). The Spain-wide part of the tax is added to it.
Deduction for renting your main home — 15% of the rent, up to €530 a year, for tenants under 36; 20%, up to €650, for young people under 30, large families, single-parent families and the self-employed. The condition is a taxable base of up to €33,000 (up to €52,800 for a joint return).
Birth of a child — from €800 for the first child to €1,400 for the fourth, if you were already a Balearic tax resident in the year before the birth.
Nursery and childcare for children under 6 — 40% of expenses, up to €660 a year; for young people under 36, large families and single-parent families, 50%, up to €900.
Tax on buying a resale home (ITP) — 8% up to €400,000, then on a sliding scale up to 13%. The reduced rates of 4% and 2% and the exemption for young buyers apply only to homes up to €270,151, which at the average price in Palma is less than 49 m², so in practice they are rarely used.
Inheritance and gifts between spouses, children and parents — a 100% rebate on the tax due.
Wealth tax — only on net assets above €3,000,000.

You can work for yourself by registering as an autónomo (self-employed) — step-by-step guide. Taxes when buying are covered in the article property taxes in Spain.

Schools and the Catalan language

Two official languages. Under the Statute of Autonomy, Catalan is the Balearic Islands’ own language and is official on an equal footing with Spanish.
Catalan at school. In publicly funded schools at least 50% of teaching hours are in Catalan. Since the 2024/25 school year families choose the first language of instruction for nursery school and the first two years of primary, and individual schools take part in a voluntary “free choice of language” pilot.
Support for newly arrived children. For pupils who arrive mid-year and do not know the language, schools run PALIC, a programme of linguistic and cultural adaptation.
British schools — Bellver International College and Queen’s College in Palma, King Richard III College in Calvià and The Academy International School in Marratxí.
The University of the Balearic Islands — about 11,000 undergraduate students in the 2025/26 academic year (preliminary university data).
Catalan at work. Since 2023 knowledge of Catalan has not been compulsory for doctors in the public health service; it counts as an advantage instead.

Healthcare, transport, work and safety

Hospitals. The main public ones are the Son Espases and Son Llàtzer university hospitals in Palma, with district hospitals in Inca and Manacor.
Palma airport handled a record 33.8 million passengers in 2025 — the third highest figure in Spain after Madrid and Barcelona. Most passengers fly to Germany and the United Kingdom.
The 75% discount on flights to the mainland and between the islands is available to citizens of Spain, the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, their family members and foreigners with long-term resident status. With a temporary residence permit — a digital nomad visa or a non-working residence permit — you generally do not get it until you obtain long-term residence.
Work. The island’s economy is seasonal: in the second quarter of 2026 unemployment in the Balearic Islands was 6.11%, the lowest in Spain, while in the first quarter it was 13.79%, above the Spanish average. Average annual earnings in 2024 were €31,123 against €29,540 in Spain as a whole. Seasonality does not affect a remote worker, but it is very noticeable for someone looking for a job on the island.
Safety. In 2025, 38,001 offences were recorded in Palma, including 15,912 thefts. Per 1,000 residents that is about 75 cases of conventional crime, against 40.4 on average in Spain; part of the gap comes from tourists, who are not included in the number of residents. In Marratxí, Inca and Manacor the rate is below the national average.

Russian speakers in Mallorca

According to the INE annual census, at 1 January 2025 the whole of the Balearic Islands was home to 2,200 Russian citizens and 3,260 Ukrainian citizens — roughly ten times fewer than in the province of Alicante. The largest numbers live in Palma (798 Russians and 1,549 Ukrainians) and Calvià (583 and 356). On the other hand, the island is very international: foreigners make up 21.7% of the Balearic population, and the largest European communities are German (22,632 people) and British (18,448). How the community is spread across the country is covered in the article Russians in Spain.

Downsides of living in Mallorca

The most expensive housing in Spain — €5,522/m² in Palma, with salaries only 5% above average.
Seasonal work — in the first quarter unemployment rises to almost 14%.
Expensive to buy — an 8–13% tax, with reliefs only for homes under €270,151.
Catalan at school — at least half of lessons.
An island — you have to fly to the mainland, and the 75% flight discount is generally not available with a temporary residence permit.
A small Russian-speaking community — about 2,000 Russians across the whole archipelago.
Theft in Palma — conventional crime per 1,000 residents is almost twice the Spanish average.

Mallorca, Barcelona, Málaga or Tenerife

Housing in Palma is more expensive than in Barcelona, but inheritance and wealth taxes are noticeably milder, there is more work in summer, and transport is free for residents; Barcelona, on the other hand, has no island logistics and no seasonality. Málaga is warmer and housing there is 29% cheaper, but unemployment is twice as high. Tenerife offers eternal spring, the special tax regime of the Canary Islands and no Catalan at school. Mallorca is chosen by those who value the Mediterranean, an international environment and taxes that suit a family with capital, and who are not put off by the prices.

Frequently asked questions about moving to Mallorca

Can I move to live in Mallorca?

Yes. People move here on the usual Spanish residence permit routes: the digital nomad visa, the non-working residence permit, work, study or family. There is no separate island residence permit; applications go to the immigration office of the Balearic Islands in Palma.

Which residence permit is best for living in Mallorca?

For remote workers, the digital nomad visa with income from €2,849 a month. For those living on savings or passive income, the non-working residence permit: from €2,400 a month for the applicant and €600 for each family member.

How much does a flat in Mallorca cost?

In August 2026 the average housing price in Palma was €5,522 per square metre, and €5,595/m² across the Balearic Islands as a whole, the most expensive province in Spain. Rent in Palma is €19.3 per square metre a month.

How many Russians live in Mallorca?

At 1 January 2025 the whole of the Balearic Islands was home to 2,200 Russian citizens and 3,260 Ukrainian citizens. The largest numbers live in Palma (798 Russians) and Calvià (583).

Where is the best place to live in Mallorca?

In Palma if you need jobs, the airport, hospitals and British schools; the cheapest districts are Rafal, Son Oliva and La Soledat. Calvià offers an international environment and a British school. Marratxí is a quiet suburb with a school and low crime. Inca and Manacor mean living inland with hospitals close by.

What taxes apply in Mallorca?

The taxes of the Balearic Islands apply: a regional IRPF scale from 9% to 24.75%, a tax on buying a resale home from 8% to 13%, a 100% rebate on inheritance and gifts to close relatives, and wealth tax only above €3 million.

Do I need to learn Catalan in Mallorca?

Not for the residence permit. But Catalan is official on an equal footing with Spanish, and at least half of lessons in state schools are taught in it. Newly arrived children can join the PALIC adaptation programme.

Is the 75% flight discount available with a residence permit?

The discount goes to EU citizens, their family members and foreigners with long-term residence who live in the Balearic Islands. With a temporary residence permit — a digital nomad visa or a non-working residence permit — you generally do not get it.

Is it easy to find work in Mallorca?

In summer, yes: in the second quarter of 2026 unemployment in the Balearic Islands was 6.11%, the lowest in Spain. In winter it is harder: 13.79% in the first quarter. Most jobs are linked to tourism.

How we can help you move to Mallorca

We choose the residence permit route to fit your income and family, prepare and submit the documents, and support you through to the residence card and autónomo registration. The most common options are the turnkey digital nomad residence permit and the non-working residence permit.