The Inmobiliaria Drac real estate group, Mallorca’s largest developer, has gone into voluntary administration with debts of close to 700 million Euros.

This is the biggest business failure in the history of The Balearics, and a clear sign of distress in the local property market, where transactions are down by 45% compared to last year.

Vincente Grande, the owner of Grupo Drac, also owns Mallorca football club, in keeping with the tradition of self made property tycoons buying football clubs.

Grande, who started in 1995, built his fortune in The Balearics by buying rural land and getting it reclassified as building land.

Inmobiliaria Drac has built more than 2,000 properties in The Balearics, and recently expanded to Eastern Europe and The Caribbean.