ULI & LISAMallorca Property Glossary All chapters uli-lisa.com →
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★ Overview1 · From Offer to Deed — The Buying Process & Contracts on Mallorca2 · Notary, Land Registry & Cadastre — the three registers your purchase rests on3 · Money Transfers, Banking & Legal Due Diligence When Buying on Mallorca4 · What the Tax Office Takes When You Buy5 · The Annual Running Costs of a Mallorca Property6 · What to Expect When You Resell — Taxes on Disposal7 · Wealth Tax & Solidarity Tax on Mallorca8 · Inheritance & Gifting on Mallorca: the Balearic Foral Law9 · Building Legality, the cédula & Retroactive Legalisation10 · Building on Mallorca: Land, Permits & New-Build Protection11 · ETV — Tourist Rental on Mallorca12 · Where People Buy on Mallorca — Thinking Municipality by Municipality13 · Tenanted Properties, Tenancy Law & the Okupas Risk14 · Your Passport Shapes the Deal: Military Permit, Visas & the Tax Chain15 · Financing & Mortgages in Mallorca16 · Estate Agents & Property Values When Buying17 · Property Types & Forms of Ownership — what the listing and the land register really tell you18 · Buying Through a Company or in Your Own Name? Legal Structures Explained19 · From Purchase to Centre of Life: NIE/TIE, Residency & Health Cover20 · Mobility & Authorities: Car, ITV, Driving Licence, Appointments21 · Buyer Pitfalls on Mallorca — and How to Avoid Them22 · The Authorities Map & Spanish Abbreviations at a Glance23 · Register of Court Rulings: the case law behind the chapters24 · Where Our Information Comes From — and How Reliable It Is25 · Building & Renovating in Mallorca — What Buyers Need to Know About Costs, Trades and the Law26 · Utilities on Mallorca: Electricity, Water, Gas & Solar27 · Agroturismo, Turismo Rural & Tourist Accommodation in the Countryside28 · Insurance Cover for Your Mallorca Property29 · What the Listing Really Says — Property-Ad & Viewing Vocabulary (ES/CAT → EN)30 · Living Here, Not Just Buying Here: Children, Pets and the Rhythm of Island Life31 · Selling Smart: What the ganancia patrimonial (Capital Gains Tax) Really Costs You32 · Boat Moorings on Mallorca (Amarre): What You Actually Buy — and What You Don't33 · Releasing Equity From Your Mallorca Home in Later Life34 · Separation & Divorce — Who Keeps the Mallorca Property35 · The Owners' Association in Mallorca: A Practical Guide to the Comunidad de Propietarios36 · The ULI & LISA Roadmap: From Search Profile to Handover of the Keys
Glossary › Chapter 24

24 · Where Our Information Comes From — and How Reliable It Is

*So that you, as a buyer, can judge what you can safely rely on here: this chapter lays open how the glossary came together, which sources we trust, where we cross-checked — and which questions we have deliberately left unanswered for now.*

How We Worked#

Our standard as an independent buyer's advisory is simple: you should be able to rely on every figure, every statute and every technical term — or know exactly when that is not (yet) the case. Behind that lies a three-step approach.

1. Research across the board and in depth. We ran roughly 20 parallel research strands across every subject area relevant to buying on Mallorca — from the purchase process itself, through tax, legality and ETV (touristic rental licence), to inheritance law, national special cases, banking, relocation, cars/everyday life and the classic pitfalls. 2. Tested deliberately against the grain (adversarial verification). Sources contradict one another more often than you would think — even law-firm websites are sometimes wrong. Wherever the information did not line up, two dedicated verification strands checked the contested points directly against the primary sources: the statutory text (BOE/BOIB), the official authorities (ATIB/AEAT/DGT) and court rulings (CENDOJ/TC). 3. No assumptions presented as fact. Anything we could not document cleanly we did not dress up, but left openly flagged as 🔴 unresolved. Nothing here is guessed.

What the Markers Mean#

Every statement carries an assessment of how dependable it is:

  • ✅ documented — backed by a primary source (statute, official authority or ruling).
  • 🟡 consolidated — several independent specialist sources agree.
  • 🔴 unresolved — before you rely on this, check the primary source.

For you as a buyer this means, concretely: with 🔴 points you should not decide anything on your own initiative, but have the position bindingly clarified before taking any contractual steps.

A Technical Hurdle You Should Know About#

Many official servers — among them BOE, BOIB, ATIB, AEAT, DGT, CENDOJ, but also idealista and various law-firm blogs — have blocked automated full-text retrieval (HTTP 403). We therefore confirmed values and identifiers via several matching sources that quote the respective primary text. The result: the BOE/BOIB IDs as well as the statute and ruling numbers are verified. For individual article numbers we recommend that, for a truly watertight citation, you have them checked once against the consolidated full text.

The Key Primary Sources at a Glance#

These legal foundations form the bedrock of the glossary (selection).

Tax and civil law of the Balearics

  • DLeg 1/2014 IB (ITP/AJD — transfer tax / stamp duty): BOE-A-2014-6925 · DL 4/2023 · Ley 12/2023
  • Compilación DLeg 79/1990 IB (inheritance law / alou): BOIB-i-1990-90001 · Ley 7/2017 · Ley 8/2022
  • Ley 11/2021 (valor de referencia — reference value): BOE-A-2021-11473
  • Decreto-ley 4/2023 (ISD relief — inheritance and gift tax) · Ley 3/2024 (broker register): BOE-A-2024-15575

Construction, land law and tourism

  • Ley 12/2017 (LUIB) · Ley 1/1991 (LEN) · Ley 22/1988 (Costas) · Ley 38/1999 (LOE) + Ley 20/2015
  • Decreto 145/1997 (cédula — habitation certificate) · Decreto-ley 3/2024 (legalización extraordinaria — extraordinary legalisation)
  • Ley 8/2012 / Ley 6/2017 (Turismo) · Decreto-ley 4/2025 (ETV)

General tax, financing, tenancy law and okupas (squatters)

  • RDLeg 2/2004 (Haciendas Locales — local finance, IBI/IVTM) · RDL 26/2021 (Plusvalía — municipal capital-gains tax) · Ley 11/2021 (cash)
  • Ley 5/2019 (mortgages) · Ley 29/1994 (LAU — urban tenancy law) · Ley 12/2023 (Vivienda — housing) · Ley Orgánica 1/2025 (okupas)

National special cases, vehicles and relocation

  • Ley 8/1975 + RD 689/1978 (Military Permit) · Ley 31/1990 (Switzerland exemption)
  • RD 920/2017 (ITV — vehicle inspection) · Ley 5/2025 (motor insurance) · RD 240/2007 (Certificado UE — EU registration certificate)

Case law → the relevant rulings are gathered together in Chapter 23.

What We Clarified in the Re-Check Rounds#

Some points were only clean after several passes. Here we document what was confirmed — and what was corrected — along the way.

✅ Clarified in the 2nd Round#

  • AJD article: the general rate of 1.5 % is in Art. 15, the reduced rate of 1.2 % in Art. 17, the increased rate of 2 % in Art. 17 bis.
  • Certificado UE: the governing threshold is 100 % IPREM ≈ €600/month (RD 240/2007); the figure circulating as "€629 / RD-ley 16/2025" was incorrect.
  • ZBE Palma (low-emission zone): in operation since 1 July 2025, monitored by 19 cameras, fine €200 (Ley 7/2021 + Ordenanza).
  • Calvià IBI at 0.495 %; the governing ruling is STS 635/2014 (vicios ocultos — hidden defects — not "35/2014"); insurance reference values via Mapfre/Caser.
  • Limitation period for building violations: 8 years (Art. 191 LUIB), not 6; the caducidad (lapse) procedure runs for 1 year.
  • legalización extraordinaria: prestación (levy) of 10 / 12.5 / 15 % on the PEM; a uso turístico (touristic use) is excluded at the land register.

✅ Clarified in the 3rd Round#

  • Palma IBI 0.445 % — the lowest rate among the major cities; Palma waste charge around €209.72/year; Calvià IBI 0.495 %.
  • ITP familia numerosa (large family) = 2 % (threshold €350,000); the 5 % rate, by contrast, applies to VPO (subsidised housing).
  • cédula dimensions: ceiling heights 2.50 m / 2.20 m ✅, minimum living area 36 m².
  • STS 538/2026 confirmed as the correct developer arras (deposit) ruling (not STS 178/2026); the basis for non-limitation on rústico (rural land) is Art. 196.2 a) LUIB.
  • ETV: the placa (plaque) requirement (Anexo 1) is confirmed ✅; nothing changes on IVA (VAT) (the removal of the exemption only comes around 2028).

🔴 Still Open — Here the Primary Source or CENDOJ Is Still Needed#

  • IVTM final amounts for Palma/Calvià as well as the Calvià waste absolute amount (the Ordenanza PDFs are 403-blocked).
  • ECLI/Ponente for STS 538/2026 as well as ROJ/ECLI for STSJ IB 326/2021 (the Ponente Frigola Castillón is known, ROJ/ECLI are missing) — via CENDOJ.
  • The exact article numbers in DLeg 1/2014 (familia numerosa Art. 10 vs. 12; VPO relief).
  • retranqueos (setbacks) / heights on rústico; for the cédula, the question of the "6 m² room" (so far only ≥ 1 room of 8 m² is documented).
  • Challenging the valor de referencia: the requirements for the expert appraisal (TS rec. 8442/2024 is pending).

Note on Publication (SEO)#

If this glossary is published online, the following approach is recommended:

  • Publish each chapter as its own page with its own URL (this index being the pillar page), preserving the internal linking.
  • Extend the markup with DefinedTermSet and FAQPage schema.org (the FAQ blocks are already prepared per chapter).
  • Keep bilingual keywords — the English and Spanish term — in the H2/H3 headings.
  • Link from listings to individual terms specifically via #anchor.
In closing: this glossary is a living document; the content reflects the 2025/2026 position. It does not replace legal or tax advice — in any individual case, bring in a lawyer, tax adviser and architect.
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