Boat Berths on Mallorca: Costs, Waiting Lists, and Ownership Rights

The boat is bought, and then comes the question that trips up plenty of plans on Mallorca: where does it go? A boat berth on Mallorca is harder to get than the boat itself. In April 2026, 7,221 people and companies were on the waiting lists for the 43 harbors that Ports IB runs across the Balearics. What a berth costs depends less on the boat's length than on the type of harbor, and buying a berth doesn't mean buying ownership. Here are the numbers, the process, and the alternatives if the list is too long.

Three types of harbor, three pricing models

A boat berth (Spanish amarre, Catalan amarrament) is an assigned spot at a pontoon or quay where a boat moors long-term. On Mallorca, harbor land belongs to the state or the Balearic government. What you pay depends on who runs the harbor:

• Harbors run directly by Ports de les Illes Balears (Ports IB), the Balearic government's port authority. These include Port de Sóller, Port d'Andratx, Portocolom, Porto Cristo, Cala Rajada, Colònia de Sant Jordi, and Port de Pollença. An official fee schedule and a public waiting list apply here.
• Clubs Náuticos, sailing and boating clubs that run a harbor under concession. Under Ley 3/2026, the Balearics' 24 clubs manage around 40 percent of all berths, roughly 8,500 of them, 70 percent of which are for boats under 8 meters.
• Private marinas under concession, such as Puerto Portals or Port Adriano. These rent at market rates, and berths trade as a right of use lasting until the concession ends.

Palma's harbor itself is a special case: it belongs to the state-run Autoridad Portuaria de Baleares, which keeps its own waiting list.

What a boat berth on Mallorca costs per year

At Ports IB, the fee is calculated under Tasa G-5 for recreational boats. It's charged per square meter of boat area (length times beam) per day. For a fixed berth moored stern-to, the base rate is 0.130491 EUR per square meter per day, or 0.195747 EUR including waste collection, water, and mooring service. A 12 by 4 meter boat covers 48 square meters. That works out to roughly 2,290 EUR a year for the basic rate, and around 3,430 EUR with all three services included. Electricity and water are billed by consumption under the separate Tasa E-3. A dry berth (marina seca) costs 30 percent less than a wet one.

For comparison, the private market: Puerto Portals' 2025 rate card lists 171 EUR a day in high season, 55 EUR in low season, and 18,418 EUR for the full year for a 12 by 4 meter berth, all before 21 percent IVA. The same berth at Portals costs roughly five times what Ports IB charges a few kilometers away in Andratx. The clubs sit in between: admission fee, annual dues, and usage fee are set by each club, and its bylaws decide whether non-members can even get a berth.

None of these figures cover winter storage, hauling out, antifouling, or the liability insurance every harbor requires. For a 12-meter boat, budget another 1,500 to 3,000 EUR a year for hauling, pressure washing, and underwater paint, plus insurance. If you add it all up and wince, the guide to renting a boat on Mallorca shows the charter prices as a comparison.

How the Ports IB waiting list works

Ports IB keeps the waiting lists for fixed berths (amarres en base, officially "Lista 7ª") separately for each harbor. On the Lista espera amarres en base page, there's a PDF for every harbor showing the current status and a link to the latest allocation round. Once berths become available, the governing board decides on an allocation and publishes the full waiting list in the BOIB, with boat dimensions and registration dates, along with the available berths by size class. From that day on, you can no longer change your application.

How long the line is shows in the March 2026 round for Porto Cristo: 238 applications on the list, the oldest from August 2005. There were 37 berths available, all for boats up to 9 meters. In the size classes from 9 meters up, none were available, and the applications at the top of the list for 11 to 12 meter boats date from 2005 to 2007. If you want a large berth there, you've been waiting for nearly 20 years. The authority doesn't publish an average wait time: responding to a parliamentary question in April 2026, the responsible department said the duration depends on the harbor, capacity, demand, and boat size. For Andratx and Sant Elm in the southwest, the last allocation round ran in January 2025.

The application runs electronically:

Buying a berth: what you actually get

Can you buy a boat berth on Mallorca? Not as property, no. Harbor land is public land. Buying a berth means taking over the right to use a spot in a harbor that an operator runs under concession. That right ends, at the latest, when the concession does, whatever the sale contract says.

The legal basis is Ley 10/2005 de puertos de las Illes Balears, which the Balearic parliament revised with Ley 3/2026 of May 27, 2026. Since then, harbor concessions, including extensions, can run up to 50 years, up from 35 before. For buyers, this matters in two ways. First, always ask for the concession's expiry date before buying. A berth in a harbor whose concession ends in 2031 is a different asset from one running until 2060, even if both cost the same. Second, the transfer has to be documented in a public or private contract and reported to Ports IB, since harbors under concession must keep an electronic register of berth users that the authority can inspect.

What the market asks for depends on the harbor and the remaining term. For a 12-meter berth in a marina in the southwest, prices in the five to six figures come up, and the harbor's annual operating fee keeps running on top. Buying a berth is, in other words, an investment with a built-in expiry date. Have the contract reviewed by a lawyer on Mallorca who checks the concession document, the remaining term, and the rules on resale and subletting before you sign.

Alternatives: dry storage, mooring buoys, trailer

A dry berth (marina seca) is the cheapest option for motorboats up to around 9 meters. The boat sits on a rack or a stand, gets lowered into the water by forklift or crane, and is lifted back out after each trip. At Ports IB it costs 30 percent less than a wet berth, the hull stays clean, and the new harbor law has explicitly counted dry marinas toward berth capacity since May 2026. That means Ports IB can plan new dry storage capacity where the water itself is full.

Ports IB runs mooring buoy fields (campos de boyas) in several bays and allocates them through the reservas.portsib.es portal, by the day or for longer periods in season. That works fine for the summer, but not for a whole year: no boat sits safely on a buoy in winter, and you'll need a dinghy for every trip ashore.

A trailer is the solution for boats up to around 7 meters. Ports IB runs public slipways, with the fee for trailer use set in its own tariff. The boat lives at home or in a rented storage space. Starting this way lets you get to know the island from the water before you put your name on a waiting list. For ideas on your first outings, see the guide to water sports on Mallorca.

Bottom line

At Ports IB, a berth for a 12-meter boat costs roughly 2,300 to 3,400 EUR a year, but the waiting list, with over 7,200 entries, decides whether you get one at all. At Puerto Portals you get a berth right away and pay 18,418 EUR net a year. The clubs sit in between. Buying means buying a right of use with an expiry date, and that date is written into the concession document, not the sales listing. Sign up with Ports IB early, even before you've bought the boat, and bridge the wait with dry storage or a trailer. For everything else the island offers on and around the water, see the guide to leisure and sport on Mallorca.