In February this year, the Balearic Parliament voted on whether to let town halls stop people like you from buying a home in Ibiza.

It said no.

The bill, brought by MÉS per Mallorca, would have allowed municipalities to temporarily block property purchases by non-residents, by companies, and for second-home use. It was not amended or watered down. On 24 February 2026 the chamber declined even to admit it for debate, with PP and Vox voting it down.

I have had versions of the same conversation with clients for three years: is Ibiza going to close to foreigners? As things stand, the answer is no — and the body that would have to make it happen has just said so out loud.

Foreign Buyers Are Not Retreating. They Are Taking Over.

The numbers from the Colegio de Registradores are the clearest picture we have of who is actually signing.

In the third quarter of 2026, foreigners accounted for 37.2% of every home purchase in the Balearic Islands. The national average was 16.05%. No other region in Spain comes close — the Valencian Community is second at 30.4%.

Nationally, foreign buyers completed more than 26,300 purchases in that quarter alone, an all-time record.

So the market that was supposedly about to shut its doors is the one where more than a third of all buyers are already from somewhere else, and the share keeps climbing.

Two Price Numbers, and Why People Confuse Them

Almost every argument about Balearic prices is really two different numbers being compared by mistake.

Registered prices — what buyers actually paid, recorded at the registry — put the Balearics at €4,502 per square metre in the third quarter, second in Spain only to Madrid at €4,565.

Asking prices — what sellers are hoping for — put the Balearics at €5,619 per square metre in October, the most expensive region in the country.

The gap between those two figures is the negotiating room, and it is wider here than almost anywhere in Spain.

The Part Nobody Mentions: The Balearics Are Cooling

Spanish asking prices rose 11.2% over the year to October 2026. The Balearics rose 4.2%.

Read that twice. The most expensive region in Spain is rising at barely a third of the national rate.

That is not weakness. It is a market that ran hard for several years and is now catching its breath while the rest of the country does the running. For someone who has been waiting for an entry point, this is what one looks like — and it will not be visible in a headline, because the headline number is still "most expensive region in Spain."

Inside Ibiza, the Spread Is the Opportunity

Here is where the island stops being one market. Asking prices, September 2026:

Marina Botafoc–Talamanca: €8,696/m²
Dalt Vila–La Marina: €7,294/m²
Figueretes–Platja d'en Bossa: €6,167/m²
Centro–S'Eixample–Can Misses: €5,922/m²

That is a 47% difference between districts of the same small city — a fifteen-minute drive end to end. Ibiza city as a whole sits at €7,309/m², up 7.4% on the year.

For contrast, within the same islands: Formentera is the most expensive place in the archipelago at €9,231/m² and fell 5.5% over the year, while Maó in Menorca — the cheapest at €3,988/m² — rose 11.9%.

The expensive end is cooling. The accessible end is catching up. Both of those facts favour a buyer who is willing to be specific about where.

And Fewer People Are Competing With You

Spain recorded 164,148 residential transactions in the third quarter of 2026, down 5.9% year on year — the third consecutive quarterly fall.

Fewer transactions nationally, record foreign demand in the Balearics, and prices here rising slower than the country. That combination does not last indefinitely.

What It Costs to Buy

Transfer tax in the Balearics is charged in slices, not as one rate on the whole price — each portion of the value is taxed at its own rate. Under Decreto Legislativo 1/2014, as amended in June 2026:

Up to €400,000: 8%
€400,000 to €600,000: 9%
€600,000 to €1,000,000: 10%
€1,000,000 to €2,000,000: 12%
Above €2,000,000: 13%

Stamp duty on new-build and mortgage deeds is 1.5%. A reduced 4% band exists for a habitual residence, but it is capped at €378,211.68 in Ibiza and Formentera, which excludes essentially everything on the island — so plan on the full scale.

Budget for notary, registry and legal fees on top, and for your own lawyer rather than the seller's.

The Licence Question Decides Everything About Rental Income

If you intend to let the property to holidaymakers, this is the single most important paragraph in this article.

You cannot create a new tourist licence in Ibiza. There has been a moratorium since 2022, the island is operating under a ceiling on tourist places set by the Consell Insular, and the buying and exchanging of plazas turísticas is suspended pending approval of a carrying-capacity limit. New places come only from pools refilled by cancelled licences.

On top of that, Law 8/2012 does not permit tourist letting in multi-family residential buildings on Ibiza — so an apartment in a block is not a holiday-let proposition, whatever anyone tells you.

The practical consequence is simple: buy a property that already holds a definitive, transferable licence, and treat that licence as part of what you are purchasing and part of what you are paying for.

Read that as the good news it is for an owner. Scarcity is why a licensed Ibiza property holds its value the way it does, and why the income attached to one is defended rather than diluted. Enforcement backs it up — the Consell d'Eivissa opened 262 proceedings between January 2025 and April 2026, and more than 14,500 irregular places have come off the listing sites since 2019.

Confirm the licence status of any specific property with the Consell d'Eivissa before you sign. Not with the brochure, and not with this article.

How I Would Buy Ibiza Right Now

Be specific about the district, not the island. A 47% spread inside one city is the whole opportunity. The right answer depends on whether you are buying to use, to let, or to hold.

Negotiate against the registered price, not the asking price. The gap between €4,502 and €5,619 per square metre is the conversation.

If rental income is part of the plan, make the licence a condition of the purchase. Verified with the Consell, in writing, before anything is signed.

Model the tax in slices. On a €1.5m purchase the marginal rate is 12%, but the effective rate is lower — people routinely over- or under-estimate this by five figures.

Move while the Balearics are rising at 4.2% and Spain is rising at 11.2%. That ratio is the opposite of what it has been for most of the last decade.

Ibiza spent three years being talked about as a market that might close. The parliament that would have closed it has declined to. Prices are at records but the heat is coming out, transactions nationally are falling, and foreign buyers are a larger share of this market than of any other in Spain.

That is a good moment to be a prepared buyer with a specific question.

Thinking about Ibiza? Contact us at info@weigsding-investments.com or message us on WhatsApp. We work in Portuguese, Spanish, English and French, we know which districts are worth the money, and we will check the licence before you fall in love with the terrace.

This article is general information, not investment, legal or tax advice. Market data reflects the periods cited and will change. Tax rates and tourist-letting rules are set by the Govern Balear and the Consell d'Eivissa and should be confirmed for your own case and your own property. Take professional advice in your country of tax residence before acting.

Sources

Colegio de Registradores, Estadística Registral Inmobiliaria, third quarter 2026, on foreign purchases and registered prices
idealista, asking-price reports for September and October 2026
Parlament de les Illes Balears, plenary session of 24 February 2026, on the MÉS per Mallorca bill concerning purchases by non-residents
Decreto Legislativo 1/2014, arts. 10, 14 quater, 17 and 17 bis, as amended June 2026; Ley 11/2023 of 23 November
Ley 8/2012 del turismo de las Illes Balears, on tourist letting in multi-family buildings
Consell Insular d'Eivissa, tourist-place ceiling, licence moratorium and enforcement figures
Instituto Nacional de Estadística, residential transactions, third quarter 2026