Malaga (EFE).- They cannot rent, much less buy. Young Spaniards face the difficulties they have in accessing housing with anger, frustration and indignation, a problem that has worsened in recent years in cities such as Barcelona, Madrid or Malaga, where in 2022 alone rents have skyrocketed by more than 31%.
For most young people, the possibility of becoming emancipated and living alone is a chimera: with their salaries, and in the face of a real estate market with sky-high and constantly rising prices, the option they have left is to stay at home with their parents. , share a flat or go to live outside the big capitals.
Many feel “expelled” from their cities, despite having good salaries and stable jobs. The lack of subsidized housing and the continuous increase in rents, which in some municipalities have reached historic highs, is an issue that occupies and worries young people, some of whom wonder how it is possible that the group has not yet taken to the streets to protest a situation that they describe as “indecent”.
“It amazes me that people don’t speak out against this injustice. What is happening is outrageous, authentic madness, and it affects not only young people, but 90% of the population,” Javi Ruiz, a 32-year-old from Malaga, explains to EFE, a secondary school teacher in Benalmádena ( Málaga), who returned to his hometown in 2020 after residing for several years in countries such as Peru, Germany or Canada.
Ruiz has lived with his parents ever since, but has been looking for a flat to buy for a long time. He has a steady job and savings to make an income, but considers the prices being asked for second-hand apartments in Malaga “an abuse”. The option of acquiring a new construction home is not even considered because it is out of his possibilities.
«Floors that are to be thrown away cost more than 200,000 euros. I have the feeling that they are laughing at us in our own faces,” says Ruiz, who still rules out the option of looking for a home outside of Malaga: “I don’t want to go abroad, I haven’t come back from Canada to go to a town, I I want to be in my city, with my family and my friends, I don’t want to give up living here».
Close to the 2008 bubble
Malaga, according to the latest report from Mercados Locales de Tinsa, is one of the Spanish capitals where purchase prices are closest to the bubble highs recorded in 2008, with an average of 2,065 euros per square meter, 8.7 % more than a year ago. Palma de Mallorca, San Sebastián or Madrid are also part of the group of cities with the prices closest to the pre-crisis stage.
And if purchase prices have risen in Malaga, rental prices have skyrocketed, with an increase of 31.1% in the last year, the highest of the Spanish provincial capitals, placing the average income at 13.25 euros per square meter per month, according to data from the real estate portal Fotocasa.
The demand for housing has multiplied in the capital of the Costa del Sol, largely due to the arrival of foreign workers, while the supply has been considerably reduced, partly because many owners have chosen to allocate their apartments for tourist use. This mismatch has made it really difficult to find “normal” housing in the city today for less than 900 euros.
«The prices are exorbitant and barely official protection housing has been made in these years. The people of my generation have a serious problem”, Raúl Delgado, who is 20 years old, studies Law and lives with his parents in the Puerto de la Torre district of Malaga, told EFE.
Raúl Delgado from Malaga poses during an interview with EFE. EFE / Jorge Zapata
Although he would like to become independent, because he also works, he admits that it is a difficult dream to fulfill considering the thousand-dollar salaries that many young people have.
“Things are complicated. Málaga is experiencing very significant growth, but no measures have been adopted to address the inequalities that are being created”, says Delgado, who has no doubt that “the main problem Málaga has is housing” and, with it the loss of their identity.
All this causes him “sadness” and “a lot of hopelessness”, even more so when he thinks that many young people have to leave their land not because they want to, but because they cannot financially afford to live there.
Up to four months deposit
Alberto Sarria, 29 years old and graduated in Advertising and Public Relations, who has worked for almost five years in a company with an indefinite contract, corroborates his words. He has tried to become independent and live alone, but he has not succeeded: his salary is not enough to pay a decent rent in Malaga.
Sarria, who has been actively looking for a flat since the end of the summer, explains to EFE that the minimum rent for a rental in the city is around 600 euros, but that for that price what you find, if you find anything, are “substandard housing » or apartments in «very questionable» condition, mainly small studios «little bigger than a room» in which a wardrobe or sofa does not fit.
Sarria has ever found an apartment that has interested him, but the real estate agents have asked him for a guarantee or up to four months of deposit: “I want to take the step, but they won’t let me,” he deplores.
Alberto Sarria, 29 years old, and a graduate in Advertising and Public Relations, during an interview with EFE. EFE / Jorge Zapata
This young publicist believes that the situation in Malaga is due to the tourist rental boom, coinciding with the ‘boom’ that the city is experiencing, and the arrival of foreign workers with high purchasing power. The result, he points out, is that the people of Málaga find it increasingly difficult to rent or buy a flat in their city.
“The situation is frustrating and it is even ridiculous for me to have a permanent job, an average salary and that my own city does not give me the option of accessing a rent,” explains Sarria, who urges public administrations to intervene to give a solution to this problem.
The worst thing, he specifies, is that “there are no prospects that the situation will change”, which further increases his level of “overwhelmed and frustration”.
Faced with the housing problem in Malaga, the plenary session of the City Council approved just a few days ago, with the votes of PP and Cs and the abstention of the opposition, a popular initiative to build 8,900 homes for sale and rent in 5 years, approximately the half protection. The PSOE managed to put a cap of 150,000 euros on VPO flats.
The problem of access to housing that Malaga suffers occurs in the cities with the highest rental prices, such as Barcelona (19.55 euros/m2), San Sebastián (18.16), Madrid (16.69), Palma de Mallorca (14.28), Bilbao (14.25) or Valencia (12.43), according to data from Fotocasa.
Jorge is 34 years old and his idea was to find a small apartment in Barcelona where he could live alone. He has been impossible.
He searched and searched and for less than 700 or 800 euros a month the only thing he found were zulos, like one he saw in the Raval neighborhood.
Forced to share a flat
They advertised it as a two-story “loft” with a single kitchen-living room space and a mezzanine as a bedroom, but the reality turned out to be a mini-apartment of about 20 square meters without ventilation or natural light, with a kitchen-dining room on the the one that did not even fit a table and a small toilet that served as a shower.
“I left there with an anxiety attack, it is without a doubt the worst apartment I have ever seen, but that is what you can afford in Barcelona when you are looking for something for yourself,” Jorge told EFE.
Having seen what has been seen, he decided to give up his goal of living alone and began to look for a larger home with the idea of sharing it, raising his budget above 900 euros. Thanks to a friend who was leaving the apartment, she finally found a three-bedroom house in an old building in the Gràcia neighborhood for which she pays almost 1,000 euros a month.
He will share it with a friend and he has needed the endorsement of a relative to be able to rent it, because being a self-employed worker he does not meet the type of profile that the owners are looking for, who prefer tenants with permanent employment and good salaries.
«The truth is that it seems humiliating to me that people of an age, with a career path and wanting to do things, have no way of living alone. It is frustrating and something that annoys me a lot, ”laments Jorge.
The person who vacated the flat where Jorge lives today is Marta De la Mano, a 32-year-old girl who left her parents’ house at 23 and has been sharing a flat until now, a decade later, she has been able to make her goal of living alone in Barcelona a reality.
She knows that her case is “an exception” and she considers herself “privileged.” He works in the Marketing and Communication department of a Swiss company in the packaging sector and earns much more than the average for people his age, which has allowed him to rent a flat in Gràcia for which he pays 900 euros per month.
The house, he explains to EFE, is just over 40 square meters and has a room, a “mini” kitchen and a small bathroom. It does not have air conditioning or heating, but it does have a large terrace. It’s not a bargain, but it’s what you can afford at the moment.
And he’s lucky. Many other young people will have to continue living for years at home with their parents or sharing a flat. Being young and accessing only a home is today a pairing that is difficult to associate in Spain.