By Nacho Doce and David Latona
SANT ANTONI DE PORTMANY, Spain (Reuters) -It’s another night, another party at a hotel in Ibiza. The international clientele dances to the house beat while laser lights reflect on the curvy swimming pool and on a sea of sunglasses worn after dark at the open-air venue.
Many party-goers wear all-white; some show signs of altered perception. Ask those queuing outside this place and some of the Spanish Mediterranean island’s legendary nightclubs and they’ll say they’re spending a lot but the experience is worth it.
However, behind Ibiza’s clubbing scene and beaches a housing crisis has forced many locals and seasonal workers to share cramped apartments, commute from off the island or stay in tents and motorhomes in unauthorised encampments.
Ibiza’s problems reflect a broader issue in Spain, where a lack of affordable housing in cities and popular coastal destinations has sparked protests to demand rent controls and denounce overtourism. Activists accuse landlords of preferring short-term tourist lets to less-profitable extended leases.
On Ibiza, nearly 800 people have resorted to living in makeshift settlements, according to local authorities’ figures from last year, which don’t include an estimated 200 who lived in shacks, tents and vans at the “Can Rovi 2” camp before being evicted last month.
“The island is paradise, the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. But it has a flipside,” said Jeronimo Diana, a 50-year-old water technician from Argentina who stayed at Can Rovi 2.
A normal monthly rent would swallow most of his 1,800-euro salary, Diana said.
Ibiza’s average rents peaked at 33.7 euros per square metre in July last year, a 23% rise from July 2023, data from property website Idealista shows. That translates to about 1,500 euros ($1,756) for a small one-bedroom apartment. Spain’s national minimum wage is 1,381 euros per month.
In one possible knock-on effect, Ibiza is seeing a growing shortage of teachers and health workers, according to regional government data. Some public servants commute from neighbouring Balearic islands Menorca and Mallorca.
Maria Jose Tejero, a 24-year-old emergency medical technician, said she shares a small flat with two housemates to make ends meet because the rent is twice her salary.
Crewing an ambulance at night sometimes makes her feel “like a babysitter”, Tejero said. “People come here, drink, take drugs and think life’s just a party when that life can also end.”
Deflated balloons litter a bar-lined street in popular tourist town Sant Antoni. Dealers discreetly inflate the balloons with nitrous oxide – laughing gas – selling the brief high for 5 euros a pop.
Lia Romero, a 28-year-old nurse from Spain’s Canary Islands who sometimes moonlights as a dancer at Ibiza’s club Amnesia, said she also shares a flat and can’t afford bar cover charges or dining out.
“Ibiza is all about posturing and displays of wealth,” she said, “leaving no room for ordinary people”.
According to the regional statistics institute, Ibiza received 3.28 million tourists in 2024, 76% from outside Spain, while the island’s resident population reached a record 161,485.
Jonathan Ariza, a mechanic and construction worker from Colombia who said he is seeking political asylum in Spain, lives in a trailer near the island’s main hospital.
“As long as tourists keep coming, there’ll be people willing to live in precarious conditions to be employed,” he said.
Alejandra, a 31-year-old Colombian with a residence permit, lives in a shelter managed by Catholic charity Caritas after failing to secure a rental. She said she slept in a tent with her 3-year-old son David until they were evicted.
Alejandra said she had a new hotel job and wanted to move out of the shelter, but worried about losing work “for being slow” as she raced to log the Social Security contributions required to renew her permit.
Social workers Gustavo Gomez and Belen Torres, who run the Caritas shelter, said landlords routinely discriminate against families with children and evict tenants to replace them with tourists during the more lucrative summer months.
Local authorities are cracking down on illegal tourist rentals, imposing fines that start at 40,001 euros on those who post them.
Vacation rental companies have agreed to automatically withdraw advertisements officials deem illegal instead of waiting for a slower judicial ruling, said Ibiza Council Vice-President Mariano Juan of the conservative People’s Party, which governs the wider Balearic region.
In Juan’s view, high demand and limited buildable land result in “absolutely illogical” rent prices on Ibiza.
At a national level, the centre-left government has pledged to triple the state housing budget and speed construction of social housing. But a 2023 law that introduced some rent controls has seen limited success, as many opposition-controlled regions decline to apply the rules given they have a high level of autonomy in housing policy.
National landlord lobby ASVAL rejects rent controls, arguing they shrink supply and raise prices. It says the best ways to bring down rents are public incentives and more construction.
Saray Benito, 32, said work as a contortionist and torch juggler at the famous Cafe del Mar is scarce in winter. Over 12 years in Ibiza, she said she has had to move 20 times and sometimes sleep on balconies.
Italian drag performer Eva Cavallini, who is famous in the LGBTQ-friendly La Virgen district near Ibiza Town’s port, lamented that soaring travel and accommodation costs dissuade other artists from visiting.
“Ten years ago, we were around 200. Now it’s just me – the only survivor here. If things keep going this way, the island is finished.”
($1 = 0.8542 euros)
(Additional reporting by Horaci GarciaWriting by David LatonaEditing by Frances Kerry)
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