Es Castell is the smallest of eastern Menorca's towns, with around eight thousand residents. It stands at the mouth of Maó harbour and was founded by the British in the eighteenth century around a garrison; until recently it was called Villacarlos. Its layout is therefore unusual for the island — a regular grid around a parade ground.
Three kilometres separate it from the capital, and in practice it is a continuation of it: hospital and airport ten minutes away. Living without a car is easier here than inland. The square metre costs more than in Maó, which its position by the water explains. In winter, like the whole island, the town goes quiet: load sits at the bottom of the scale from December to February, and few places stay open.
Worth a trip nearby
- Maó · 3 km — the island capital, the hospital and the airport
- Cala Sant Esteve · 2 km — the cove with Fort Marlborough
- La Mola · 7 km — the nineteenth-century fortress on the headland
Resaleestimate
3 000€/m²
+7.5% price growth yoy
asking priceaskingWhat sellers ask on portals. No official appraisal exists for this town: they are published from 25,000 residents up.Why it matters. It carries haggling room, optimism and time on market. A real deal is usually 5–10 % lower; not comparable with another town's appraised value.: what sellers ask
Populationsource
7 895
Foreign residents 14.5%
Winter humidity
74%
damp risk without heating
Sunshine hours per year
2 700h
Es Castell sits in Menorca, right on the water. From November to March the town empties out: our rating is 1 out of 5. A resort in summer, shuttered bars and thin transport in winter. You can live here without a car: our rating is 4 out of 5, rare on the Spanish coast. The airport is 10 minutes away, closer than for most places in the database.
Hospital, terrain, getting around
Nearest hospitalsource
23min by car
Hospital Mateu Orfila
Maó-Mahón · 10.4 km · public
Terrainsource
rolling
Centre at 16 m, 34 m of elevation change
25–80 m of change — the climb from the sea to the centre is noticeable on foot
Car-freeour rating
4/5
comfortable without a car
No rail station within 3 km · bus stops within 1.5 km: 4
Where from: the Ministry of Health hospital catalogue, road time · elevations from the Copernicus terrain model · OpenStreetMap · ratingswinter liveabilityOur 1-to-5 rating of whether a town lives from November to March — open places, running transport, people around.Why it matters. Most resorts shut for winter. Tourists never notice; someone who moved gets four empty months. An estimate, not a measurement. for car-free and hospital minutes are ours.
Sea temperature
5 months above 20 °CTourist load
What tenants actually pay
sourced75th percentile75th percentileThe rent that only a quarter of leases exceed. The median is the middle of all leases, old ones included.Why it matters. A new lease is signed closer to this figure than to the median: long-standing tenants pay old rates, a newcomer pays today's.
665€/mo
This is the median rent on active leases — tax records for 2024, a sample of 617 leases. It includes long-standing contracts at unchanged rents, so it sits below what is asked today: our estimate of asking rent is 1 050 € for a two-bedroom.
The point of the 75th percentile: it is closer to what is being signed now than the median. The gap between them shows how much a new tenant overpays relative to long-standing ones.
Where from: SERPAVISERPAVIThe Ministry of Housing's public registry of rents: medians of actual signed leases by municipality.Why it matters. Asking rent and signed rent are different things: across our base listings run about one and a half times above the registry. The registry shows what people actually pay., Ministerio de Vivienda · municipality: Es Castell
Rent by number of bedrooms
asking price, estimate| 1 bedroom | 780 €/mo | |
| 2 bedrooms | 1 050 €/mo | |
| 3 bedrooms | ≈ 1 370 €/mo | model: two-bed × 1.3, no measurement yet |
| Median of active leases, 2024 | 550 €/mo | SERPAVISERPAVIThe Ministry of Housing's public registry of rents: medians of actual signed leases by municipality.Why it matters. Asking rent and signed rent are different things: across our base listings run about one and a half times above the registry. The registry shows what people actually pay. · 71 m² |
Asking prices are what long lets are advertised at today; the registry is what tenants pay on signed leases, including old ones. The gap between them is your negotiating argument.
Schools nearby
estimateInternational schools counted in the base: 0. Names and curricula for this place are not verified yet — the school registry covers the thirty most-requested places so far.
2Renting without a Spanish contract
How realistic a long lease is without a nóminanóminaA Spanish employment contract with payslips. Landlords ask for it as proof of income.Why it matters. A newcomer does not have one and will not in the first year. Where it is required, a long lease is nearly impossible — even with money in the bank. — on foreign income, savings or prepayment.
- —Stock goes to tourist lets: long leases are scarce and competed for
This is our model, not a measurement: demanding a nóminanóminaA Spanish employment contract with payslips. Landlords ask for it as proof of income.Why it matters. A newcomer does not have one and will not in the first year. Where it is required, a long lease is nearly impossible — even with money in the bank. is an individual landlord's practice and nobody publishes it. The rating is derived from the share of foreign residents, the presence of a community with services, price growth, seasonality of the stock and the size of the town.
Who lives here
INEINESpain's National Statistics Institute. It keeps the padrón — the official register of residents of every municipality.Why it matters. The only primary source of population for the whole country. A figure 'per INE' can be checked against a table; a figure 'from the internet' cannot. 2025Foreign residents on the padrónpadrónThe municipal register of residents. Registering in it — empadronamiento — proves you live here.Why it matters. Official population comes from it, and you will need it yourself: without registration there is no health card and no school enrolment.
14.5%
1,148 of 7,895
- United Kingdom305
- Italy162
- Morocco111
- Colombia59
- France51
- Argentina47
- Bulgaria44
- Romania37
Communities and services in their language
Where from: INEINESpain's National Statistics Institute. It keeps the padrón — the official register of residents of every municipality.Why it matters. The only primary source of population for the whole country. A figure 'per INE' can be checked against a table; a figure 'from the internet' cannot., Censo Anual de Población · the register-based census counts padrónpadrónThe municipal register of residents. Registering in it — empadronamiento — proves you live here.Why it matters. Official population comes from it, and you will need it yourself: without registration there is no health card and no school enrolment. registrations by citizenship on 1 January, not everyone living here: seasonal owners and the unregistered are outside it, and naturalised residents count as Spanish.
Winter direct flights from MAHMenorca airportIATA code MAH.
January 2026/2710 min to the airportDestinations served at least weekly in January; checked 2026-09-17.
Paperwork and practicalities
Appointment for the TIETIETarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero — the plastic residence card with your NIE and the permit's expiry. Issued at the police after entering on a visa or after a permit is approved.Why it matters. Without the card you cannot open a resident bank account, sign a long lease or prove your status at the border. The police appointment (cita) is a weeks-long bottleneck in some provinces.· Illes Balearsfrom reports
2In Ibiza in February 2026 the police station said it plainly: slots are released twice a month and there are not enough of them. One resident had been unable to book for two years. The Balearic immigration office is the worst staffed in Spain: 38 people against 75 posts, and none at all in Ibiza. Formentera residents have to travel to Ibiza. In Palma the wait is two to four weeks, summer is the hardest season, and new slots appear around eight in the morning.
1 — no slots for weeks, 5 — freely available. Checked 2026-09-17
Coworking within 3 km
not on the map
Dog beaches within 8 km
not on the map
From OpenStreetMap — an open map filled in by volunteers. Something missing there may still exist: read this as «we found this many», not «there are no more».
Where to look next
Cheaper with the same sea
