The Partido Popular in Ibiza is calling on the Spanish Government to give residents of the island priority when allocating the 532 public and protected homes planned for Ca n’Escandell in Ibiza Town.

The demand follows a dispute between the Spanish Housing Ministry and Ibiza's local and island authorities over who should qualify for priority when the homes eventually become available.

PP representatives say residents who already live and work on the island should receive priority, while Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez has said the homes will not be reserved exclusively or preferentially for current Ibiza residents.

PP criticises the Housing Minister

Mariano Juan, the PP's deputy secretary for Island Policy, criticised Rodríguez following her visit to Ca n’Escandell on Thursday.

Juan argued that Ibiza faces a serious housing-access problem and said it was difficult to justify building public housing on the island without giving priority to people who already live there.

The PP is calling on the Spanish Government to reconsider its position and establish criteria that take effective residence and local ties into account.

These are political demands from the PP and do not represent a final allocation rule for the Ca n’Escandell homes.

What Isabel Rodríguez said

The dispute follows Rodríguez's visit to Ca n’Escandell on September 17.

During the visit, the minister rejected the idea of establishing a local-residence preference for the homes managed through the state housing entity Casa 47.

Rodríguez argued that the Spanish Government is responsible for providing housing for Spaniards generally and said the future residents of the development would become residents of Ibiza once they lived there.

Her position is therefore different from the request being made by Ibiza's PP and local institutions for a specific preference for people who already reside on the island.

The project will contain 532 homes

Ca n’Escandell is planned to contain 532 public and protected homes.

The development involves land and housing arrangements between public administrations, with part of the project connected to the Spanish Government's Casa 47 housing programme.

The homes are intended to provide public or affordable rental housing, with the precise allocation arrangements depending on the ownership and management structure of the different parts of the development.

Balearic Government gives a different interpretation

The controversy took another turn on September 18 when Balearic Government spokesman Antoni Costa said the regional Housing Law already establishes a residence requirement for protected housing.

Costa said people seeking protected residential properties must have at least five years of residence in the Balearic Islands.

He therefore argued that the Ca n’Escandell homes subject to the regional protected-housing rules would be accessible to people meeting that legal requirement.

The Balearic Government's interpretation directly challenges the suggestion that people with no established residence in the islands could automatically compete for all of the homes.

Ten years is being requested by Ibiza institutions

The Consell de Ibiza and the island's five municipalities have gone further than the five-year minimum cited by the Balearic Government.

The Consell d’Alcaldes agreed unanimously to ask the Spanish Government and Casa 47 to prioritise people who already live in Ibiza, particularly those who can demonstrate at least ten years of residence.

The proposal is intended to apply especially to the 532 homes planned at Ca n’Escandell.

This ten-year threshold is therefore a request from the island's institutions, rather than a confirmed final eligibility rule for the development.

Why the issue has become politically sensitive

Housing availability has become one of Ibiza's major political issues as population growth, property prices and limited affordable housing have increased pressure on residents.

Local authorities argue that publicly supported housing should help people who already live and work on the island remain there.

The Spanish Government, meanwhile, has taken a broader approach to access to public housing and has also highlighted the need to house essential workers, including healthcare professionals, teachers and police officers.

The disagreement is therefore not over whether Ibiza needs more public housing, but over how access should be prioritised once those homes become available.

The homes are not ready for allocation

The dispute concerns future eligibility and allocation.

The Ca n’Escandell development is still being prepared, and the homes are not currently available for residents to move into.

Consequently, no final list of beneficiaries exists and no individual applicants have yet been selected for these homes.

The eventual allocation process will depend on the applicable legal framework, ownership arrangements and the rules established for each part of the development.

PP calls for the criteria to be changed

The Ibiza PP says the Spanish Government still has time to reconsider its approach before the housing allocation procedures begin.

Mariano Juan has called for mechanisms that take effective residence and local ties into account, particularly for younger people who are struggling to establish themselves on the island because of housing costs.

The PP also pointed to the separate need for housing for essential public-sector workers and argued that this should be addressed through specific housing programmes rather than by removing priority for existing residents from the Ca n’Escandell development.

A dispute with no final allocation rule yet

The latest developments leave three positions on the table.

The PP and the Consell de Ibiza want existing residents to receive priority, with the island institutions asking specifically for preference for people with at least ten years of residence.

The Balearic Government says protected housing is already subject to a minimum five-year residence requirement under regional law.

The Spanish Housing Minister has rejected establishing a special local-residence preference for the Casa 47 homes.

Until the final allocation rules are formally established for the different homes at Ca n’Escandell, it would therefore be premature to say that the properties will be reserved for Ibiza residents or, conversely, that non-residents will definitely be eligible on equal terms.

For now, the confirmed development is a political and legal dispute over how the future housing will be allocated.