Two houses on the same stretch of coast. Both with six bedrooms, both with a pool, both with the sea in view. One of them asks in June what the other asks in August. Across our own collection, the distance between the most affordable six-bedroom house and the most expensive one is more than fifteenfold at entry rates, for the same number of bedrooms.
So the bedroom count, the number most people search by, explains very little. Here is what does.
The weeks you pick
The calendar moves the price more than anything else about the house. Taking each property and comparing its lowest week against its highest, the typical house roughly doubles. Some go much further: at the top of the range, one property asks more than four times its entry rate for its best weeks.
How far a house travels between low and high season is itself a useful signal. Villa Jesus, a small house at JesĂşs with a view over Ibiza Old Town, barely moves: about a tenth between its quietest and busiest weeks. It is priced for a couple, and a couple can come in July without the calendar punishing them. Can Nemo at Cap Martinet moves by more than three times, because what it offers is exactly what August wants. Villa Mariola near Santa Eulalia sits in the middle of that range: it roughly doubles.
Practical consequence: if your dates can move, ask what the same house costs a fortnight either side of them. On a house with a wide seasonal spread, ten days can matter more than changing house.
Where it stands, and what you see from it
Among houses of four to six bedrooms, those with a sea view ask close to double, at entry rates, what the ones without it ask. Six in ten of those houses have one, which is also why the ones that do not have to compete on something else: a bigger plot, a quieter road, a newer kitchen.
Now the part that surprises people. A sunset view, asked for by name in more enquiries than almost any other feature, carries no measurable premium at all: houses with one sit within a percentage point of houses without. If watching the sun go down over the water matters to you, it is one of the few things on the list you can have without paying for it.
Distance is its own driver, and it works in both directions. A house ten minutes from the airport and ten from town saves you a car and two drivers; a house well inland gives you more ground, more quiet and a lower rate for the same building.
What the house does for you
This is where two houses of the same size separate for good.
Can Nemo lists staff, a house manager, waiter service, a professional kitchen with a preparation kitchen beside it, a wine cellar, a hammam, a padel court and a heated pool. It is not being paid for as a building. It is being paid for as an operation that runs while you are there.
Villa Mariola lists none of that, and does not pretend to. It is a well-built modern house near Santa Eulalia with a lap pool, for a group that wants the house and not the staff.
Neither is the better buy. They answer different questions. The mistake is comparing their weekly rates as though they were the same product.
The plot, the age and the condition
A finca restored three years ago and a finca restored fifteen years ago photograph alike and price apart. So do two identical floorplans on plots of very different size, and two houses where one is gated and fenced with parking for six cars and the other shares a lane.
Villa Klara at San José is a useful case: inland, gated, with a child play area, a tree house, table tennis, a gym and a garden big enough that the equipment does not crowd the pool. What is being priced there is ground, not coastline.
Houses cleared for weddings sit around a third above comparable houses that are not. That is not a tax on romance. A property that can take an event has the access, the parking, the neighbour distances and the owner’s consent to do it, and those are structural.
What is in the rate, and what is charged apart
Most of the unpleasant surprises in this market are here rather than in the headline figure.
- Cleaning. Close to a third of the houses we work with quote it as a separate charge. The rest include it. Two comparable weekly rates can end up a long way apart on this alone
- Deposit. Every house takes one, refundable, held against damage. It is not part of the rental cost, but it is part of what leaves your account before you arrive
- The tourist eco tax. Paid on arrival, per adult per night. It is set by the Balearic government, not by the house or by us, and it applies whichever villa you choose
- Staff and chef. Where they are not included, they are arranged and billed separately. Ask which of the two applies before comparing houses
- Heated pool. Where a house offers one, using it often carries an additional charge, and in May or October that turns out to matter
- Minimum stay. Slightly more than three in five houses require seven nights or more, and the range runs from three nights to a full fortnight. A house that looks affordable per week can be the more expensive option for a short stay, simply because it will not take one
How to read a quote
Four questions get you most of the way:
- What does this same house cost the week before and the week after mine?
- Is cleaning in the rate, and is anyone working in the house during my stay?
- What is charged on arrival rather than at booking?
- What is the minimum stay, and does it change by season?
If a quote does not answer those, it is not yet a quote. It is a number.