Mallorca Vehicle Cap from 2027: Where Things Stand

The Consell de Mallorca wants to cap the number of cars on the island by law. The planned Mallorca vehicle cap is due to take effect in 2027 and targets vehicles not registered on the island: holidaymakers' cars arriving by ferry, rental fleets from the mainland, and also the foreign plates that some residents have been putting off dealing with for years. The law has not been passed yet. The timeline is concrete all the same, and several points are already settled. Here is where things stand as of August 2026.

The Mallorca vehicle cap is a planned law of the Consell de Mallorca that for the first time sets an upper limit on vehicles brought to the island from outside. Non-island cars will need a permit and pay a fee. Anyone whose main residence is on Mallorca is exempt.

What has been decided so far

The island council approved the law in early June 2026 after months of preparation and passed it to the Balearic Parliament at the end of July. There, the governing PP was joined by PSIB, MÉS per Mallorca and El PI in voting for it, while Vox abstained. PP and PSIB have also requested that the parliamentary deadlines be halved. Parliament is therefore handling the bill under a fast-track procedure, with adoption expected in December 2026. The rules are to enter into force in early 2027 and apply from the summer season 2027.

The reason is simply a lack of space. At peak times, according to figures from the rental car association, up to 950,000 vehicles are on the roads at the same time on an island with around 970,000 inhabitants. By sea alone, more than 400,000 vehicles arrived on Mallorca in 2023 according to the Consell, and around 100,000 rental cars circulate in summer on top of that. Ibiza and Formentera have had comparable restrictions since 2024.

Practical preparations have been under way since the end of July 2026: the Consell de Mallorca has signed agreements with the ferry companies Baleària, Trasmed and GNV. The shipping lines will report to the island council how many vehicles are shipped in and out each day and whether the owners are residents. Together with a study on the carrying capacity of the road network commissioned in July, this data will be used to set the actual cap.

Who the cap affects

The rules target vehicles that are not registered on Mallorca. Under the current draft, that means four groups:

• Holidaymakers who bring their own car by ferry: they need a permit and pay a fee per stay.
• Second-home owners without tax residency on the island: they may keep only one car per household on Mallorca, and it must be registered on the island.
• Rental companies whose fleets are registered on the mainland: their vehicles fall under the cap, and fleet sizes will be regulated.
• Residents with a car registered elsewhere: if you live here permanently you are exempt from the fee, but the car should have been re-registered long ago anyway.

Enforcement is planned through license plate recognition cameras in the ports. The ferry companies are to collect the fee directly when the ticket is purchased.

What entry is supposed to cost

The amount of the fee is the biggest open question. Since the first announcements, a figure of around 20 euros has been mentioned, but nothing has been set. An expert group at the island council is currently working out what staff, permit administration and camera technology will cost. That is not a formality: finance councillor Rafel Bosch has made clear that, legally, the fee may not exceed the administrative cost of the system. A charge of several hundred euros per vehicle would be hard to justify on that basis.

The neighboring islands provide a useful reference. On Ibiza, entry with your own car costs one euro per day, on Formentera six euros per day with a minimum of 30 euros. Both islands also limit the number of permitted entries per season.

Does the Mallorca vehicle cap already apply in 2026? No. The law has been before the Balearic Parliament since the end of July 2026 and is due to be passed there by December 2026. The cap only takes effect from 2027, probably at the start of the summer season. Until then you can bring your car to the island as before.

What you can do now as a resident or owner

For residents with tax residency on Mallorca, the law changes little directly. The fee does not apply to you, and your car registered on the island does not count toward the capped group. It only becomes a problem if your vehicle still carries foreign plates. The obligation to re-register exists today regardless of the new law, but plate recognition in the ports is likely to make enforcement a lot tighter. How registration with the traffic authority DGT works and what it costs is explained in our guide to re-registering a car.

Second-home owners should prepare for the one-car rule. If you currently keep two vehicles in the garage of your holiday property, you will probably have to part with one or move it permanently to the mainland. Registering the remaining car on the island makes sense anyway, because that takes it out of the fee requirement. For occasional visits, a rental car can also work out cheaper than a second car of your own.

If you regularly take the ferry between the mainland and the island, keep an eye on the parliamentary debate. Whether there will be multi-entry permits or annual arrangements for frequent crossings with the same vehicle has not been clarified yet.

Conclusion

The Mallorca vehicle cap is very likely to come, because the law is backed by a broad majority of government and opposition. What has been decided: the timeline with a start in 2027, the exemption for residents, the one-car rule for second homes and enforcement through the ports. What is still open: the cap itself and the amount of the fee, which will probably be closer to the 20 euros of the first drafts than to three-figure sums. If you are driving on the island with foreign plates, now is a good time to tackle re-registration. Everything else will be decided in the Balearic Parliament by the end of the year, and as soon as the cap and the fees are set, we will update this post.