The emancipation rate in Spain stood at 14.8% in the first half of 2024, one and a half points less than in the same period the previous year, and the historical minimum since records have been recorded (2006), according to the latest edition of the Emancipation Observatory of the Spanish Youth Council (CJE), which attributes this drop to the increase in rental prices.
«All these data end up leading to a devastating reality: young Spanish people face the worst prospects for becoming independent since at least 2006. Furthermore, 3 out of every 10 young people in Spain are at risk of poverty or social exclusion» , the CJE has warned in a statement.
According to the report, to rent alone, a young person should allocate more than 100% of their annual net salary since the rent is “at a record price”, according to the CJE, with the average price “at 1,072 euros per month.” .
The CJE points out that, despite having seen an upward trend in the emancipation rate in recent editions, “housing prices have truncated the future projects of a good part of young people.”
“The labor reform or the increase in the SMI have proven insufficient compared to the conditions necessary to currently access decent housing, which imply allocating more than 100% of one’s salary to being able to live alone,” the Council points out.
Price increase
According to the CJE, the increase in rental prices has caused “a historical record” to be reached and the median to be in four figures, the highest since the CJE began recording it in 2006.
Thus, it specifies that the average rent increases by 13.6% compared to a year ago and stands at 1,072 euros. This “unparalleled” growth, according to the CJE, confronts youth with a trend whereby there is “a gap between the rise in housing prices and that of salaries” since, “since 2008, salaries of young people have increased by 10.8%, while rents have increased by 54%.
Over-indebted young people
Specifically, the Council explains that the average of 1,048.19 euros that a person earns does not cover all of the 1,072 euros that were allocated on average to rent, not counting the 120.37 euros on average that a young person must spend to supplies.
The consequences of this, according to the CJE, are observed in the 74.5% of the young working population who still continue to live in the family home. In any case, it also warns that the households of those who manage to emancipate “do not have a better perspective” since 70.5% were over-indebted, having to dedicate more than 40% of their income to paying rent.
Given this situation, the vice president and head of political advocacy of the CJE, Pilar Blasco, has pointed out that “listening to young people and responding to their problems should not be a circumstantial issue.” “We know that there is no magic wand to solve the structural problem of housing, but we ask that short- and long-term policies be implemented as soon as possible,” he urged.
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