FIVE international real estate agencies have been vandalised in a coordinated overnight attack in Mallorca.
Vandals smashed windows, sabotaged door locks, and daubed walls with aggressive graffiti in the inland town of Santa Maria del Cami.
The Policia Local confirmed that the coordinated strikes took place at around 2.30am.
Two young men were spotted carrying out the sabotage before fleeing the scene in a getaway car.
The properties were left defaced with spray-painted slogans reading ‘Guilty!’ and ‘Guiris out!’ across the glass.
German multinational Engel and Volkers suffered the worst damage during the night.
Attacking youths smashed a front window and defaced the company facade, which forms part of a protected cultural heritage site.
The office is located inside the historic Convent dels Minims, an officially registered asset of cultural interest.
Nearby agency Olive Island Properties also came under fire during the blitz.
Vandals covered the windows of the firm in thick paint and blocked the front door lock.
Other firms targeted included The Agency Mallorca, Imperial Properties and Christie’s.
The Guardia Civil has now taken over the criminal investigation to track down the culprits.
The local town hall issued a statement condemning the acts, which come amid boiling tensions over the housing crisis in the Balearics.
Activists across the islands regularly blame international estate agents for pricing locals out of the market as property values skyrocket.
But the Balearic National and International Real Estate Association, ABINI, has issued a fierce pushback against the targeting of foreign firms.
A spokesperson for the group branded the overnight sabotage as ‘cowardly and unjustifiable’ actions that target the wrong people.
“These attacks falsely accuse the real estate sector of being responsible for the residential emergency being experienced in the Balearics,” the association said.
The group insisted that ‘real estate agencies are not the problem, but part of the solution’ to the ongoing island property crunch.
ABINI warned it would not tolerate the ‘criminalisation of hundreds of small business owners and workers’ who are simply doing their jobs honestly.
The group has consistently shift the blame for the regional housing shortage elsewhere.
Bosses argue that local authorities should focus on cutting through the regulatory labyrinth and building more public housing rather than blaming international investments.
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