Garden maintenance for communities and urbanisations in Mallorca
Communal garden contracts go wrong for a predictable reason: the specification is one line long, three companies interpret it differently, and the community picks the cheapest without knowing what was left out. A written specification fixes most of it, and it costs nothing to produce.
Key takeaways
- Price the specification, not the garden. Visit frequency and waste disposal move a tender more than area does.
- Irrigation should be named explicitly, including who adjusts the programme through the year.
- Regular maintenance costs €4,200 to €6,000 a year for a large garden and €6,200 to €8,900 above 1,000 m².
- Ask for a named contact and a simple report per visit, especially where an administrator manages remotely.
What should the specification say?
Enough that three companies quoting it are quoting the same job. In practice that means the number of visits per month in each season, what happens on each visit, who removes green waste, who is responsible for the irrigation system, and what is explicitly excluded.
It should also say who is allowed to instruct extra work and up to what value. Communities lose more money to unrecorded extras than to the contract rate.
How are these contracts priced?
| Garden size | Regular maintenance per year |
|---|---|
| Up to about 500 m² | €2,500 to €3,500 |
| About 500 to 1,000 m² | €4,200 to €6,000 |
| Over 1,000 m² | €6,200 to €8,900 |
Those are ranges for standard planting maintained on a regular round. Communal areas with hedging, palms, irrigation across several zones or pool surrounds sit higher, because those need skilled time rather than a machine.
What causes disputes?
- Green waste left on site because removal was never priced.
- Irrigation faults that nobody owns, so the planting dies while two parties discuss whose job it was.
- Watering outside permitted hours where a municipality has restrictions in force.
- Work done at times that disturb residents, particularly early morning strimming in summer.
- Extras agreed verbally by one owner and invoiced to the community.
Who handles the irrigation?
This deserves its own clause. A communal system typically has several zones, a programmer nobody can find the manual for, and a history of adjustments made by whoever was there. Name the responsible party, put a seasonal reprogramme in the contract, and ask for a zone check at least twice a year. It is the cheapest clause in the document and it prevents the most expensive failures.
What about water restrictions?
Communities are as exposed as private owners, and often more visible. Where a municipality limits watering to drip systems or to specific hours, a communal lawn is the first casualty. It is worth agreeing in advance what happens if restrictions tighten mid-contract, rather than discovering it in July. Our guide to water restrictions on Mallorca sets out the usual pattern.
How to compare tenders
Put them side by side on visits per year, what each visit includes, waste disposal, irrigation responsibility and the hourly rate for extra work. A tender that is cheaper on the annual figure and dearer on extras is not cheaper, and that only becomes visible when you compare the same five lines.
How the matching works
We do not maintain communal gardens. We keep a list of vetted maintenance companies on Mallorca that work with communities and property managers, and pass your specification to those covering your area. Send it once and compare quotes for the same document.
How much does communal garden maintenance cost in Mallorca?
About €4,200 to €6,000 a year for a garden of 500 to 1,000 m², and €6,200 to €8,900 above that, for standard planting on a regular round.
What should a communal maintenance contract include?
Visits per month by season, what happens on each visit, green waste removal, responsibility for the irrigation system, exclusions, and who may authorise extra work.
Who is responsible for the irrigation in a community garden?
Whoever the contract names. Leaving it unstated is the most common reason communal planting dies, because a fault sits unfixed while responsibility is debated.
How do we compare maintenance tenders fairly?
Compare visits per year, what each visit covers, waste disposal, irrigation responsibility and the rate for extra work. Totals alone hide the differences.
Write the specification once
One page of specification turns three incomparable quotes into three comparable ones. Send it through and vetted Mallorca companies will price the same document.
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