Palma

This is the real difference between Palma and everywhere else on this coast. The resort towns are wonderful from spring to autumn and very quiet through the winter. Palma simply carries on. The restaurants stay open, the bars are busy on a Tuesday in February, and there is something to do on a dark evening in January.

For anyone thinking about spending more than the summer months in Mallorca, or eventually living here full time, that changes the equation entirely.

Palma has the lot. The designer names, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Rolex, alongside El Corte Inglés and every high street brand you would expect. Restaurants at every level from a corner café to serious dining. The Paseo Marítimo along the front, with the marina and the yachts moored along it.

Above all of it stands the cathedral. La Seu is one of the great Gothic buildings in Europe, sitting right on the waterfront so that it seems to rise straight out of the bay, and it is the first thing you see arriving by sea. It anchors the whole city. The old town behind it is a maze of stone streets, shaded squares and courtyards you can glimpse through open doorways, and it is genuinely beautiful rather than merely photogenic.

The airport is ten to fifteen minutes away, which for a second home matters more than people expect. There is no drive at either end of the trip.

Palma is a city rather than a single place, and the neighbourhoods are genuinely different from one another. The old town, the areas behind the front, the streets near the market, the residential hills above the city. They vary enormously in character, in price and in what daily life feels like.

It is worth talking through before you start looking, because the right neighbourhood in Palma matters more than the right street in a small resort. Tell us how you want to live and we will point you in the right direction.

Buying in Palma usually means an apartment rather than a house with land. Private pools and gardens are rare and expensive, parking is a genuine consideration, and the most central parts get busy with visitors through the summer.

If what you picture is a villa with a pool and a sea view, the coast will serve you better. If what you picture is walking out of your front door into a city, nowhere else on the island comes close.

Buyers who want life around them rather than quiet, who value being able to walk everywhere, and who want somewhere that works in winter as well as summer.