COVID-19 has brought many changes to the world population, not only at the health level. In the wake of the world’s greatest natural disaster in recent history, there is a growing appreciation for the comfort of home, beyond simply being the place where we retire each day after spending a long time away from home. The changes caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus, in the way we work, interact with other human beings and ultimately live, have made us rethink our life in general and assess from other totally unforeseen angles, how we want to live it.

In the PRE-COVID-9 world, a world of absolute globalization, with millions of people in constant movement, for business or pleasure, without limits, no one really felt the need for drastic changes. Why really, if during the year from time to time, they could move from their place of residence on a regular basis?

With the confinements decreed in most of the European countries and their citizens locked up at home or with strong mobility restrictions, many people in Europe who own houses or apartments in the Balearic Islands decided to take their belongings and move to spend this period in their summer residences.
The possibility of working online and of being able to continue with the education of their children at a distance among others, have been decisive factors in these decision-making.

And what does this situation mean for the real estate market of the Balearic Islands? Has this global economic crisis really affected the main sectors of the Balearic economy?

The economy of the Balearic Islands depends fundamentally on two sectors that together contribute more than 50% of its GDP: tourism and real estate, and according to the official records of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera, the real estate market continues to produce new sales.
Some of these new sales on the islands are based on the search, by potential buyers, for a place where health, safety and well-being are guaranteed, and the Balearic Islands stand out in all these areas.

A solid network of public and private hospitals where doctors and staff speak other laguages and who overall are facing the Covid-19 challenge impeccably, without the collapse of health services or lack of space in the hospitals of any of the islands, and with an unprecedented collaboration between the islands, make the sanitary infrastructure of the Balearic islands a point of growing interest for tourist and residential developments on the islands.

On the other hand, the efforts to protect the local environment have now receiving well-deserved interest from visitors who appreciate the nature of the Balearic Islands and wish to be part of it, to enjoy it and protect it. This new global philosofy as result of the Coronavirus pandemic towards health, responsible consumption and environmental protection will also have a positive impact on the Balearic real estate market and will become an increasingly determining factor in new developments that will assume a significantly greater respect for nature.

The enormous challenge to which we have had to adapt quickly, have strengthened the importance of the real estate market in the Balearic Islands. Prices have remained surprisingly strong and have largely been unaffected by this international crisis, as has happened in the past.

Compared to other financial markets, the real estate sector of Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca and Formentera continues a constant progression providing a safe investment in a tangible object and in fact, the recent outbreaks in different European countries and their negative impact on the stock markets generated a rapid increase in real estate investment in the Balearic Islands. While it is indisputable that COVID-19 will reduce the number of transactions that will take place in the coming months and that this will subsequently reduce the general movement in the real estate market, the average price records indicate that the value of the property will not suffer significant devaluations.