The fever of rent gives the final slam to young people
MADRIDUpdated:
Less than one in five young Spaniards has been emancipated, according to data from the Council of Youth of Spain, and the age to do so is 29.3 years, three above the European average, as recorded by Eurostat. If we observe the sharp rise in rental prices and of the property owned by cities such as Madrid it is understandable to understand that young people can not leave the family home because with their salary they can not cope with a mortgage or monthly income.
«We see that young people can not buy a free home and there is no social housing» underlines Jaime Fernández, assistant manager of Asprima, the association of real estate developers of Madrid. Remember that a few years ago there were between 60,000 and 100,000 sheltered homes and that there are now 4,500. "This situation ends up affecting the rent because there is a lot of demand, little supply and prices go up," he says. At this time, "prices are rising where they never increased before and it is reaching a situation that is impossible," he adds.
Behind this difficulty that the Spaniards have in leaving the family home there are other causes besides the economic ones. «You have to keep the cultural theme very much in mind because the family is very important, the young people feel very well clothed », explains Esther González Arnedo, professor at EAE Business School. "We also have the problem of youth unemployment that highlights the inefficient educational system we have: there are qualified young people who do not find their niche and others without qualifications who have not been able to guide," laments the teacher. Without forgetting that the wages have lowered in Europe, "that the economic situation shrinks and that we have a new real estate bubble", adds.
Beatriz and Fernando, both 30, live in Chamberí, in an apartment of 30 square meters and pay 800 euros: "Not bad for what you see now," she says. This year they want to get married and would like to form a family, "but for that we need a bigger house and in the area we do not find anything decent for less than 1,400 euros. How do we pay it if everyone earns more than a thousand euros per month? "He asks. Her sister Alicia, aged 28, is still in her parents' house: "At her age she is doing internships and what she earns is not enough to pay for a room".
«There is a very large imbalance in the market, the rents are very difficult partly because it is not very regulated, "says Professor González Arnedo. In fact, it is the case of finding empty houses «that their owners do not dare to rent because they have had bad experiences» and on the other hand most of the young people can not meet the conditions that they ask for guarantees to rent an apartment « unless they resort to their relatives. "
The solution, for specialists, goes through place more sheltered housing, "both for purchase and for rent. The administrations have a lot of ground and there are multiple ways to do it, "says the Deputy Manager of Asprima. The outlook is not very hopeful because if there are already many voices warning of a new recession "there are no proposals or housing plan and government measures are necessary to turn the situation around," the EAE professor points out. In this way everything indicates that the average age of emancipation of our young people will continue to increase.
An increasingly heavy burden
The official data of the Bank of Spain indicate that in our country a family needs 7.3 years of their gross income to fully pay for a home. This effort rate is calculated with the price of the property divided by gross household income. Only a year ago, this indicator did not reach seven years and we have to go back to 2011 to find such a broad period. This effort is still lower than the maximum recorded in the historical series, nine years on average in June 2007, but it is far from the levels considered by the experts as healthy, and which are in the environment of four to five years of income gross average of Spanish households. The rise in this indicator is due to the mismatch between the rise in the price of houses and the slight increase in wages that in some cases is non-existent.
