Leaving the family nucleus and becoming emancipated before the age of 30, a dream that is almost impossible to achieve today. Specifically, the Young Spaniards become emancipated at 30.3 years on averagewhich represents the highest figure since there are records, according to data published by the Emancipation Observatory of the Youth Council of Spain collected in the second half of 2022.
Regarding the rest of its European partners, Spain is well below the continental figures. In our country the emancipation rate was 15.9% in the second half of 2022 while in the European Union the average rate of independence was 31.9%, double that in the peninsula. This means that the percentage of the young population that was emancipating residentially stagnated mainly due to increases in rental and housing prices and the increase in inflation, for example, according to the Observatory.
Despite the fact that the average salary of a young person rose by 4.6%, settling at 13,079.19 net euros per year (or 1,089.93 net euros per month), the price of rental homes did 7.55%, according to the study. In this way, the average rent for a home was established at 912 euros. In this way, a young person would have to dedicate 83.7% of their salary. That, added to the 141 euros on average that the supplies and services of a home cost on average (such as bills for water, electricity, gas, etc.), would mean 1,053 euros per month, 96.6% of his salary. In other words, he would only have 36.93 euros left to buy food, buy clothes and spend on leisure, something completely unaffordable.
On the other hand, the rental market in Spain continued to become more expensive during the second half of 2022. Given the impossibility of renting alone, one in three young people who live for rent are forced to do so in shared housing. The average rent for a room at the end of 2022 was 282.19 euros, 25.9% of the average young salary. This figure is dangerously close to the recommendation reached by most studies, which establish that the price of a habitual residence should not account for more than 30% of a person’s salary.
The increase in the average home purchase price and the option to pay a mortgage was not much better for young people either. First of all, because the average income for a home was established at the end of 2022 at 49,852.20 euros, the equivalent of 3.8 full years of salary for someone under 30 years of age. And, on the other hand, for those young workers who were able to access a mortgage, the average amount of the first monthly payment was 661.33 euros, 60.7% of the average salary of a salaried person under 30 years of age.