The Brief

• A property anywhere in Mallorca as a 2nd home, with 3/4 bedrooms & pool
• Complete privacy
• Seaviews
• Timeframe flexible

The Challenges

Many people coming to Mallorca are looking for a property with a seaview. After all, the island has 554 km (346 miles) of coastline. However, onlly 21% of the coast is given over to residential development. The rest comprises totally inaccessible mountain areas in the NW Tramuntana, protected beaches, dunes, salt flats, wetlands & marshes, green zones, stretches assigned to the military & commercial strips

The closer you get to the coast, the smaller the plots. These can be as small as 800 square metres, with boundary separation of 4 metres, so neighbouring properties are very close.

In more recent urbanisations, regulations have allowed for a coast road in front of properties closest to the sea, allowing better public access but also less privacy for home owners

Our client was a well known actress, we had to avoid areas where she would be recognised. At the same time, this shouldn’t be a remote location with no facilities

The Search

Steve Sheen & his wife Pauline had been looking for a private property with a sea view for some time. As it is so difficult to combine these 2 criteria, they had ricocheted around the island viewing with various agencies. The nearest they had come to finding their ideal was a finca in the hills outside Andratx with a distant sea view. I accompanied them on a 2nd viewing but it was quickly ruled out after the rather perilous approach road.

They had also been shown properties in Banyalbufar, a village in the NW Tramuntana with a spectacular setting but not only is it a tortuous route to get there, it would have been far too isolated for the children. Similarly, Valldemossa is not only inundated with tourists throughout the year, which would have been uncomfortable for Pauline, but there are local weather conditions in some parts where mists often obscure the seaview.

Concentrating initally on inland areas of the SE coast, where you can find private villas & fincas with a seaview to around 3 kilometres inland, the search took a dramatic turn when, following a holiday in a waterfront villa in Naples, Florida, the clients decided their Mallorca property “must, must have frontline seaviews!”

Agent descriptions can often be misleading, so you waste a lot of time travelling to properties which turn out to be second or third line and are actually better described as “unobstructed seaview”.

Only 35% of the frontline positions of 9 calas comprising Cala D’Or are taken by detached villas, many of them sitting close to a low, rocky foreshore where the public have easy access. However, Calo de sa Torre within Porto Petro harbour was reachable by a road which didn’t follow the coast but diverted inland by 3 kilometres first. There was far less chance of casual walkers from the port.

Two properties were earmarked for viewing in the same road, both south facing and looking out to sea. One of them was hacienda style, built around a central courtyard, so was perfectly private and could be enjoyed in onshore breezes.

The next couple of weeks were spent driving the coast road, literally looking at every frontline road, from La Rapita to Cala Pi and starting again at Cap de Regana. A huge chunk of land is under military jurisdiction here, all the way to Punta Llobera.

At the same time, checking all sales sources revealed a 3rd property which had never been openly advertised in Mallorca. It was listed with an estate agency based in Cologne advertising on a German property web portal. This was a frontline villa set on a large plot of 1,690 sq metres in a cul-de-sac in Tolleric, 25 minutes out of Palma and only 15 minutes from the airport. Tolleric is a tiny residential area tacked on to the end of a chain of urbanisations running south from Arenal, a well known beach resort. As the beach gives way to cliffs, so the tourist infrastructure disappears and the coastal strip becomes very spanish, typically commuter belt. There’s an excellent shopping area in Maioris for daily needs.

The roadside of this property was fenced in and hidden by bouganvillea and pine trees, whilst the neighbours were screened on double plots either side. The sheer cliffs on this part of the coast drop 25 metres. With an awe-inspiring seaview the villa also had a rare feature – a hidden platform in the rock face with views over the entire Bay of Palma.

The Result

After viewing just 3 properties, Steve & Pauline decided this villa was perfect. What it lacked in wow factor from the street it made up for behind the gates. Negotiation secured the property under budget & the next day meetings were arranged with the lawyer for Power of Attorney as their busy schedule meant they wouldn’t be able to complete in person.

This search had been an unusually long one, and the criteria changed halfway through. This sometimes happens as clients reassess their priorities when they see the reality of what is actually out there. We can’t conjure up the ideal property, there’s no magic involved. It’s steady, systematic research which sometimes takes time. However, you have the reassurance that we’ve covered all the angles before making the important decision to buy.