Rob Horgan
A BUYING boom has exploded on the Balearics following its rise to fame on the small screen.
Property sales in Mallorca have soared following the popular BBC drama The Night Manager.
Starring British heartthrob Tom Hiddleston and national treasure Hugh Laurie, the setting of most of the series is at a luxurious hilltop hideaway in Mallorca.
In fact, Martin Dell, director of Spanish property portal Kyero.com, reports that inquiries in Mallorca are up 38% on last summer, and attributes much of the interest to the BBC drama.
“The popularity of The Night Manager has put Mallorca in a different league,” he said. “That as well as the fact that it was named one of TripAdvisor’s top 10 islands in the world to visit in 2016 has done wonders for the property market.”
He added: “The upmarket portrayal of Mallorca on the small screen is reflected in the interest in pricier property.”
In total, more than 6 million people watched the BBC drama when it aired last spring. The lavish clifftop La Fortaleza estate is owned Tory donor Lord James Lupton purchased for an estimated €40 million in 2011 from another Brit, John Ogden.
A one-week stay at the sumptuous estate was auctioned for a cool €265,000 at a Conservative party fundraiser last year.
And it is not just the buyers heading to Mallorca, celebrities have also flocked to the island this summer with British actress Sienna Miller, X-men actor Michael Fassbender and ex-Real Madrid ace Ruud van Nistelrooy all spotted on the island.
