Muro

Muro is one of those municipalities in the north of Mallorca with two very separate lives. Inland, a large agricultural village, with an old town, heritage, and a horticultural activity that remains real. On the coast, several kilometres away, the municipality reaches the bay of Alcúdia and there is Playa de Muro, the longest beach on the island, with its hotel strip, protected dune system, and the natural park of s'Albufera just behind. Between one and the other, there is only countryside. This physical separation between the village and the sea explains almost all of its market: in the village, main residences are purchased at reasonable prices, and on the coast, second homes and beach apartments.

The municipality is large and flat, with irrigated and dry farming land inland and wetlands and sandy beach at its northern end. Muro was and continues to be an agricultural municipality of the Pla: irrigated lands, vegetables, and a tradition of farming that marks the local calendar. The village has a well-preserved old town, with stone houses and semi-circular arches, with the parish church and the convent as references, and it preserves one of the most interesting ethnographic collections in Mallorca, dedicated precisely to the trades and rural life of the island. Its other singular element is a bullring carved into the rock of an old quarry, in the village itself, which is unlike any other on the islands. To the north, the municipality changes completely: s'Albufera, the most important wetland in the Balearics, and a strip of sand and dunes in the bay of Alcúdia.

Muro has two areas separated by countryside, and the choice between them is the main decision. Muro village concentrates most of the housing and services: old town, 19th-century extensions, village houses, and apartments, with life all year round and reasonable prices. On the coast, the strip of Playa de Muro brings together the offer linked to the sea, divided into very different sectors: from the urbanised area with hotels and services on the front line to the protected stretch of dunes, with not a single building. Within that strip is Ses Casetes des Capellans, a settlement of huts built on the sand that is a unique case in Mallorca. Between the village and the coast, there is rural land with fincas and country houses, many of them on irrigated land. There are no more settlements: here, one does not choose between neighbourhoods, one chooses between village, countryside, and beach.

The village functions as the service centre of the municipality, with local shops, a market, educational centres, a health centre, sports facilities, and municipal services, and with a constant local life throughout the twelve months, very little affected by the season. It is, in fact, one of the municipalities where the contrast between village and coast is most marked: while the village lives the same in February as in August, the strip of Playa de Muro is intensely seasonal, with an offer focused on visitors that reduces significantly in winter. For specialised services and a large commercial offer, the reference is Inca —which is nearby and has its own profile— or Palma. It is a practical municipality to live in all year round if one chooses the village, and clearly a holiday use if one chooses the coast.

The northern part of the municipality is exceptional. Playa de Muro is the longest beach in Mallorca and the one of choice for those with children, due to the gentle slope of the water; and behind it, s'Albufera, the most important wetland in the Balearics, a natural park of channels, reeds, and lagoons with one of the best birdwatching spots in the western Mediterranean, with trails and observation points. Having a long beach and a protected wetland in the same municipality is a combination that is rarely repeated on the island. The interior offers the landscape of farmland, flat rural paths —ideal terrain for cycling, which is very present in this northern area— and dispersed heritage. Culturally, the village maintains rooted festivals, the ethnographic museum, and the bullring carved into the rock as its most visited rarity.

Muro is located in the north of Mallorca, well situated: it has a train station on the line that connects Sa Pobla with Inca and Palma, the Inca motorway provides a comfortable and flat journey to the capital and the airport, and local roads connect with Inca, Sa Pobla, Santa Margalida, and Alcúdia. It has one of the best communications in the north of the island, and the train is the least mentioned part. Within the municipality, the point to consider is the distance between the village and the coast: they are not contiguous, there are several kilometres of countryside between them, and this means that a car is necessary to get from one to the other, and also if one lives in the countryside. Public transport connects the village with Inca and Palma and the coast with the tourist settlements in the bay, with better frequency in season. In summer, traffic and parking in the beach strip are the weak point.

The two markets offer two distinct options. In the village, village houses predominate —many spacious, with two or three floors, with patios and often in need of renovation— and apartments in low-rise buildings, in the most accessible price range in the north for a municipality with services. In the countryside, fincas and country houses with land, with the particularity that much of the land is irrigated. On the coast, apartments near the beach —the most abundant product with mixed use between residence and second home— alongside townhouses and detached houses in the residential areas of the strip. Ses Casetes des Capellans is a separate case with its own circumstances. New builds are limited on the coast, conditioned by the protection of the dune system and the natural park, and the emphasis is on second-hand properties, rehabilitation, and renovation.

Muro combines two demands that barely intersect: the main residence in the village, with local and regional buyers, and the second home on the coast, with a significant presence of international buyers attracted by the bay of Alcúdia. This is complemented by land: a significant part of what comes up for sale in the municipality consists of plots, in a municipality with a lot of irrigated land, which opens the door to buying a plot to build —with all the conditions that this entails on rural land— and makes the already built finca the scarcest product. Prices in the village are among the most reasonable in the northern area, while the coastal strip moves at levels similar to the rest of the bay. The offer of long-term residential rentals is more realistic in the village than on the coast, where seasonal rentals heavily influence the market. It is a municipality with products for very different profiles and with a more accessible entry than its coastal neighbours.

Muro particularly suits those seeking an affordable first home in a northern village with services and year-round life, those wanting a large village house to renovate, families attracted by a beach with shallow waters, profiles of second homes and international buyers in the coastal strip, and those who value having a natural park nearby. It is worth considering, however, that the village and the beach are not together —this is the feature that most surprises those unfamiliar with the municipality and the one that most conditions the choice—, the strong seasonality of the coast compared to the stability of the village, the influx and parking in the beach strip in summer, the dependence on cars, the condition of many village houses, which often require renovation, and the conditions for building on irrigated rural land or near protected areas. Well understood, this duality makes it one of the most complete municipalities in the north.