For Dorian Caffot de Fawes, the approach of autumn in Menorca is no deterrent to the daily swim. When we speak, the antiques dealer has just enjoyed a dip on his way back from a morning business meeting. “My partner and I swim every day, including in winter, and walk almost every day,” says Caffot de Fawes, who divides his time between London and the island’s capital of Mahón, where he bought a home in 2019 and recently opened a gallery. “It’s what you fall in love with out here, along with the architecture and the general energy of the place.”
The island of Menorca — smaller, less developed and less populated than its Balearic neighbours of Ibiza and Mallorca — has long offered buyers seeking a quieter Mediterranean holiday home a range of options.
Many are drawn to the quaint fisherman’s cottages of traditional seaside villages such as Binibeca, Es Castell and Sant Lluís. Others favour more modern homes in the many purpose-built resort conurbations — including Cala Llonga, Binidalí and several around Binibeca — which are often dated from the 1970s and 1980s, offer easy access to and views of the coast, and usually have swimming pools. Elegant stone fincas — historic farmhouses, often converted and frequently also with pools — dot the inland areas for those with larger budgets who favour privacy and remoteness.
Most holiday-home buyers on the island are mainland Spanish or French, says Nick Cook, from estate agents Home Menorca. In the past two years, he has seen growing interest in homes in the island’s towns, including Ciutadella de Menorca, Sant Lluís, and particularly Mahón, which is close to the airport and has a population of about 30,000.
“Increasingly, people want to live in a community that is not dead in winter, have a coffee in a café and participate in the cultural activities of the town,” says local architect Gabriel Montañés, for whom Mahón townhouse renovations now form 40 per cent of his work. He points to their lower maintenance costs compared with detached country homes, which also tend to come up for sale less frequently. Many town houses in Mahón are large enough for families “and not everyone wants to be on a farm with no neighbours”, he says.
“Mahon is a 15-minute city. You’ve got bakeries, cafés, bars and restaurants,” says Edward from London who declined to give his real name. After a holiday in April, he returned with his partner in May to house-hunt in the capital. The majority of those he saw required renovation, which the couple, with busy jobs and family commitments back in the UK, lacked “the time, money or inclination” to attempt. When a three-bedroom flat they had seen on Instagram with an elegant interior came up for sale, they offered quickly and bought it for €400,000. “It’s somewhere you can lock up and leave easily,” Edward says.
The price of Mahón town houses underlines how much cheaper homes are on Menorca compared with Mallorca and Ibiza. At €3,684 per sq m, the average list price in the central Cala Llonga, Menorca’s priciest neighbourhood, is just less than half the €7,413 per sq m in Son Vida, the most expensive suburb of Palma, Mallorca’s capital, according to Spanish property website Idealista.
Beyond Mahón, the modern whitewashed homes of the tourist villages combine relatively lower prices with good views. Matthew Brookes, a Paris-based British architect, and his wife purchased a three-bedroom house with a garden in August on the edge of San Jaime Mediterráneo, a resort on the island’s south coast, for €400,000.
Historically, these homes passed within the family, from father to son. Today, you could easily spend €1mn. He holidayed on Menorca regularly for 11 years and had been looking for a home there for eight, abandoning the search for fincas inland when it became clear the few that came up for sale would be beyond his budget.
Brookes says he could get permission to knock down the home, which was built in 1989. But, to save money and reduce the embodied carbon entailed by a new-build and because he likes the whitewashed walls and traditional design features, he will extend by 40 sq m and renovate the home instead. His current budget for the work is €80,000. “but I accept this may have to go up thanks to the rising costs of labour and materials on the island,” he says.
According to Montañés, rising labour and materials prices mean renovation costs have increased between 30 and 40 per cent in the past two years and a typical wait for a building team for a major project is a year. Starting prices for a renovation are now €2,100 per sq m, he estimates, and can double for higher-spec projects. Montañés says planning licences typically take a year to come through in Mahón, about nine months in Sant Lluís, and 20 months in Ciutadella.
Most homes for sale in Mahón have been in the hands of local families for years, often generations, meaning renovations are required after a purchase to create the facilities and comfort foreign buyers expect, says Cook. Caffot de Fawes’ renovation was meticulous — even so, the home requires regular maintenance, he says. He recently finished a repainting job on several ceiling patches that had signs of humidity on them (Montañés says modern renovation methods can prevent damp in walls).
“This summer there was virtually no rain for three months then last week we had biblical levels; several of my friends’ homes leaked,” says Caffot de Fawes.
But the charm of the period property — which, like many in the town, was built during the British occupation that began in the 18th century — makes the work worthwhile.
“It’s everything I wanted,” he says. “Half of it has original terracotta flooring; the rest comprises [later additions of] Victorian cement tiles with extraordinary patterns. The symmetry in the doors and windows, the high ceilings, the big solid stone staircases, with original wrought-iron handrails, and the patio garden outside,” he says. “The plumbing, the electricity, the humidity — I know they’re all impractical. But this is my 18th-century house fantasy.”
Mahón’s popularity with foreign buyers is squeezing affordability for local residents, says Victor Mayans. Both he and his wife were born on the island and moved to Mahón in 2003 into the home that belonged to his wife’s grandmother. They have been steadily renovating the home, which they expanded in 2017 by buying the flat above.
Mayans works in tourism and is pleased with the prosperity that Menorca’s growing popularity has brought, pointing to the opening of the Hauser & Wirth gallery in 2021 on the Isla del Rey in Mahón harbour, the growth of design hotels across the island and the rise in good restaurants in the capital. But he adds that two of the last three homes to have sold near him recently have gone to French buyers.
“Historically, these homes passed within the family, from father to son,” Mayans says. “Today, you could easily spend €1mn for a home here, then another €300,000 to €400,000 for refurbishment, and on top of that there are other costs. I mean, who in Menorca has €1.5mn to buy a home?”
At a glance
– Average list prices in Mahón have risen 72 per cent since 2014, according to Idealista.
– In July, the Balearic Islands attracted more than 3mn tourists for the first time since records began.
– Direct flights connect Menorca to Madrid in 1 hour 35 minutes and Paris in 1 hour 55 minutes.
On the market
– Apartment, Mahón, €410,000
A three-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment near the centre of Mahón. The property, which has 94 sq m of living space, is on the top two floors of the building and has a roof terrace that measures 50 sq m. The flat is sold furnished. Through Home Menorca.
– Villa, Llucmaçanes, €1.25mn
A traditional country house in Llucmaçanes, a hamlet near Menorca’s capital. The main house has five bedrooms and there is a separate one-bedroom apartment. The large garden — the plot measures 1,400 sq m — has a pool and patio. Through Home Menorca.
– Villa, Binibeca Vell, €1.9mn
A detached villa with four bedrooms in the south-east of Menorca. The property, which measures 264 sq m, was built in 1989 and features a swimming pool, garden and terrace. The villa has…+
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