Vitoria (EFE).- More than 84,000 young Basques want to emancipate themselves but only one in six, that is to say around 13,600, “can realistically consider buying or renting a home on the free market.”
This is one of the conclusions of the “Report on youth population and housing” that have been broken down in parliamentary commission and at the request of EH Bildu the director of Housing Planning of the Basque Government, Mario Yoldi, and the editor of the study Carlos Parrón.
The presentation of the report coincided with the approval by the Governing Council of the 2030 Basque Strategy for Youth Emancipation.
Its objective is that the Basques become independent before the age of 28 and that it collects new aid of 300 euros per month for housing.
As Yoldi explained, the causes that prevent young people between the ages of 18 and 34 from accessing a home are employment -late access to the labor market, low wages and instability- and its high price both for rent and purchase.
As a consequence, the emancipation rate has fallen from 43.7% in 2010 to 32.9% in 2021.
This delay in leaving the family home occurs especially under 30 years of age.
From that date “things improve”, since there is a better job and a better income.
Thus, the average emancipation age in the Basque Country stood at 29.7 years last year, well above the European average of 26 years.
Being emancipated supposes 50% of the salary of young people
Young Basques between the ages of 25 and 29 have an average net salary of 1,273 euros, an amount that rises to 1,558 euros in the 30 to 34 age group.
They are salaries that are “far from the amount necessary to be able to access housing”, especially in the capitals and in coastal municipalities “that suffer the pressure of buying a second home”.
This forces young people to “make an investment effort that practically doubles that considered normal in the free market.”
Specifically, young Basques must dedicate 58% of their salary to paying the home mortgage or 54% if they are renting.
The recommended investment effort is 30% of salary, which is the percentage that the Basque Government sets as a limit in the case of public housing stock.
This situation makes it practically impossible to access a home on your own unless you have savings or considerable family help, Yoldi explained.
Of the 84,248 young people in the Basque Country who want to become emancipated, 32,186 do not have any type of income and another 38,408 do not have sufficient or stable income to do so.
In this way, only 13,654, that is, one in six, can consider doing so “realistically”.
Currently in Etxebide there are 30,798 young people who want access to subsidized housing. Two out of three opt for renting because “they can’t even consider” their purchase.
Emancipate through a shared apartment
Carrón has specified that 65% of the young people enrolled in Lanbide are already emancipated in free rental housing but “an increasing percentage” has a room in a shared apartment.
For this reason, they sign up to Etxebide to access a protected income and get out of this “precarious situation” which also involves a “high economic effort”.
Shared flats, as they have explained, are an upward trend that also occurs among people over 40 as single-parent families with a very high percentage of immigration.
The Basque Government is studying this phenomenon because currently, of the 118,000 homes registered in the Basque rental registry, only 144 appear as shared flats “due to nebulous legal problems.”
When the study is completed and this reality is quantified, “we will attack this issue,” Yoldi promised.
The director of Housing Planning has emphasized that in the last three years the Basque Government’s programs to promote emancipation have allowed 4,369 young people to have access to subsidized housing.
In addition, specific benefits have also been deployed for young people with low and medium incomes and empty houses have been mobilized to promote emancipation “at an affordable price”, which have also helped in this regard.
In total, Yoldi pointed out, more than 9,200 young people have become independent thanks to these programs. EFE