A Complete Guide to Renovating a Property in Mallorca

Renovation on this island follows the same sequence whether the property is a flat in the capital, a villa on the coast or a farmhouse at the end of a track. What changes between them is which stage is hard, not which stages exist.

One: establish what you actually have

Before anything is designed, somebody works out what the building is: what is structural, what the services are, what has already been altered and what condition the roof and any timber are in. On property that has been renovated before this matters more rather than less, because previous work is rarely documented and is exactly what the next project will run into.

This is the stage people skip to save money and it is the stage that saves the most. An assumption made here is paid for at four or five times the price once walls are open.

Two: decide the scope, and write it down

The single biggest decision is whether the electrical and plumbing installations are being replaced, because that turns a project confined to a few rooms into one that touches every room. After that comes the layout, and whether it needs structural work to achieve.

Write the result down in plain language. It does not need to be technical. It needs to be the same document that goes to every company, because that is the only thing that makes their prices comparable.

Three: permissions and the technical side

What the work needs depends on what it touches and where the property is, and a company quoting the job says what it needs before it can price it. What matters practically is establishing early who arranges it and whether it sits inside the quoted price, because the answer varies between companies and it moves dates. There is a separate article on what to ask.

Four: strip out

Demolition and removal, and the stage where the surprises appear: old wiring, damp with no obvious source, and structure that is not where anybody said it was. On a property with restricted access this is also slower and dearer than it looks, because waste leaves by whatever route material arrived.

Five: first fix

Structure, electrical, plumbing and any cooling routes, before anything is closed up. Every decision about socket positions, lighting, and where things go has to be made now, and changing them later means opening finished walls.

Six: second fix and finishes

Kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, plaster, paint and joinery. This is the visible part and the part everybody imagines when they picture a renovation, and by the time it starts the expensive decisions have all been taken.

Seven: handover

Snagging, the certificates the installations need, and the paperwork for anything that was permitted. Ask for a record of what is buried in the walls while somebody still remembers, because a house with no record of itself is much harder to maintain.

Where to go from here

By property type: villa, house, apartment or finca. By where the property is, the areas pages say what differs locally. If you have not bought yet, price the work first.