Access to housing is one of the major problems facing the younger generations in the Canaries today, with many youngsters frozen out of a housing market that they simply cannot afford.
The cost of buying a home has increased by almost 45% over the last five years, according to the real estate platform, pisos.com.
The Canary Islands are the Spanish region that has seen the fourth-highest increase in prices since the year before the pandemic. Ahead of the Canaries are the city of Madrid, the Balearic Islands and the Community of Valencia.
On average in Spain, the average entry price of a 90-square metre flat in 2019 (20% down payment plus 10% expenses) was €48,663. Now that has risen to €65,122.
Ferran Font of pisos.com said “Buying a home in Spain is complicated, especially for younger generations, who have less favourable working conditions and are forced to resort to a rental market that, in most cases, extinguishes their ability to save.”
An example of the trap that young people find themselves in can be seen clearly on the Canaries, where the average rent of €1388 a month is almost 70% of the average salary of €1,924. This is aggravated when you consider that younger workers are the ones who are usually earning far less than the average salary – a recent study suggested that younger renters would have to pay 99.4% of their salary on rent.
And even this situation only applies to those lucky enough to have found rental accommodation in the first place. Thousands of younger Canarians are still forced to live with their parents, where only 15% of young people between the ages of 19 and 29 have managed to leave the parental home.
Three out of ten young Canarians are now considered to be living at the risk of poverty and social exclusion, despite having jobs.
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