Undo the path you took to return to your parents’ house. It is the almost always harsh reality faced by many Spaniards who have at some point celebrated the feat of emancipation. The phenomenon is not unknown, but returning to the nest is intensified in difficult times, and these are them. The boomerang kids return to the family home because they cannot pay the rent or the mortgage, because they want to maintain their consumption and well-being and prepare to try to move out again.
Transitions into adulthood are increasingly fragmented and reversible. “These are people who are not that young, they are in their thirties, who started a life project as a couple or in a shared apartment with friends or strangers and whose often precarious jobs do not allow individual emancipation,” summarizes the sociologist Mariano Urraco , professor at the Open University of Madrid (UDIMA). Although there are no statistics that count the number of people, Urraco confirms the existence of these undesirable dynamics, which are directly related to precarity and the lack of resources for subsistence. He also realizes that there are many other people who stop the blow with the help of their parents: for example, they fill their refrigerator or give them an apartment.
The incessant rise in rental prices, unemployment, permanent part-time contracts and low salaries explain the drama of the collective in Spain. Not to be forgotten are the increased cost of living and increased interest rates, which have significantly reduced the ability to be independent. “The purchasing power of young people has fallen by 34% over the last 25 years and by around 23% since the start of the economic crisis in 2008,” comments David Veloso Larraz, General Director of the Youth Institute (Injuve).
It’s no longer enough to have a job. “Although the average salary of a young person rose by 4.6% to 1,089 euros net per month, rent rose by 7.5%. Thus, the average income was set at 912 euros,” says Juan Antonio Báez, vice president of the Spanish Youth Council (CJE), with data from the second half of 2022. This corresponds to 83.7% of the salary. Just as important is paying the bills for water, electricity or gas, so the total bill is 1,053 euros per month, i.e. 96.6% of the salary. That means there are only 37 euros left to buy food and clothing and spend on leisure. Not viable. As if it were an eternal curse: “We see people aged 35 or 40 who are forced to live like 25-year-olds,” says Báez. And he reveals another reason for the resurgence of housing reversibility: “The autonomous communities have not granted many applicants the young rental bonus of 250 euros for those under 35.”
Ana Pastor, a 40-year-old nursing assistant, managed to emancipate herself at the age of 27 in Madrid, where she lives. And as is usual at this age, he shared an apartment with three friends. Then with his partner, from whom he separated three years ago. Then the adventure ends. “You can’t live in Madrid on 1,200 euros,” he says. She now lives with her father and saves everything “so that she can rent an apartment on her own without having to rely on friends or a partner.” He is also studying diagnostic imaging to improve his income. “I will earn between 1,600 and 1,700 euros a month.”
—And buy an apartment?
– No, I can’t buy. I don’t even think about it.
Emancipation occurs primarily through rent. “For emancipated people under the age of 30, renting is clearly the predominant option for a decade (53.4%). For those aged 30 to 34, rent rose from 24.9% to 39.8%, up 15 percentage points, and transfers of single-family homes rose from 6.3% to 13.2%; Meanwhile, home ownership has fallen from 68.7% to 47%, or more than 20 percentage points,” says the Essentials report, part of the joint research program in socioeconomics between the BBVA Foundation and the Ivie.
Locally, both options have become so expensive that there is only one option left: a shared apartment. And it’s not free either: a room in Spain costs an average of 445 euros per month, whereas eight years ago it was 258 euros, according to Fotocasa.
When the adventure ends
Patricia Álvarez shared life and expenses with her partner until two years ago in a 20-meter studio in the Carabanchel district (Madrid), for which they paid 600 euros. After the breakup, the 34-year-old hairdresser had no choice but to turn around and return to her parents’ house. “I was making minimum wage back then. It has now risen to 1,030 euros a month, but rents have risen much more,” he explains. “I find it impossible to rent on my own, I would have to go to Toledo,” she says. And he explains: “You can’t find anything in Hortaleza, where I work, for less than 850 euros, and the landlords also demand a lot of guarantees.” Patricia lives from hand to mouth, she can’t save because she has a few loans, and she is pessimistic about her future: either the house adapts to the salaries or vice versa.”
Romina Da Graca, 35 years old, lives with her parents in Vigo. Agostino churches
Romina Da Graca, 35, had also been living with her parents for three years when she separated from her husband. “We paid 450 euros for a studio next to El Corte Inglés, but now those prices no longer exist. They charge you about 650 euros, I can’t pay the full rent,” says the Argentine, who works in a bakery in Vigo and shares half of the rental costs with her parents. He is aware that with a salary of 1,200 euros a month his only option is to share an apartment with other people. Maybe later I can do it on my own, even if it means making some sacrifices. “I’ll drink less coffee,” he suspects.
Returning home to your parents is usually associated with great frustration. “You feel like you’re falling into the void,” says Pastor. “Today it is seen as a failure, a defeat, but the more this phenomenon spreads, the less socially stigmatized it becomes,” says Urraco. The sociologist does not rule out the possibility that this phenomenon becomes institutionalized and that people leave their parents’ home more than once. The Director General of Injuve highlights the impact on young people’s mental health. “There is a danger that they will see it as a failure and take the blame for their own decisions, when in reality the economic system in which we live operates on the basis of fierce competition in which spontaneity and businessmanship prevail.”
Belén Rupérez, a 34-year-old from Madrid and a preschool teacher, believes that the loss of independence is the worst thing. “You get a little frustrated, but I don’t take offense.” He is pleased that he has had a permanent contract since 2019, which brings him an income of 1,700 euros per month. In 2017 she set up her own business with a friend for the first time, in an apartment for which they paid half of 775 euros a month. Later, “the friend bought a house with her boyfriend and living alone wasn’t feasible for her.” He says: “The option I saw as the easiest was to go back to my parents’ house.” That was in 2019 and has been ever since He managed to save, but without deprivation. “I’m going out, I’m going on a trip…” “The goal is to buy an apartment and have something of my own,” he explains.
It is not a minority thought. Many want to be owners. “The desire supposedly attributed to young people to want to live without ties transforms necessity into a virtue. “The majority want to own their own home, just as they would like to have a job for life like their parents,” says Urraco.
The main dam consists of previous savings. “With an average salary, it is difficult to cover the starting fee,” says Rupérez. According to the CJE, they average 49,852 euros, which corresponds to 3.8 full years of salary for someone under 30. “Studies conclude that only 13% of renters have savings to cover the initial expenses of a purchase,” says Veloso Larraz. As a result, “access to rental and owner-occupied housing is now proving to be a major problem,” he adds. The sociologist Mariano Urraco points in the same direction: “Whether because more was demanded or because things cost less, in the past you could suggest alternatives without having to resort to others.” “The situation of young people today has nothing to do with what their parents experienced.”
Late emancipation
The situation of the young people who have not even been able to leave the nest is even more devastating. The proportion of the emancipated young population in Spain is stagnating. The CJE records the highest average age of emancipation in the last 20 years: 30.3 years. “Young people in Spain cannot emancipate themselves unless they stop being young,” says Juan Antonio Báez. While the emancipation rate in Spain was 15.9%, the average emancipation rate in the European Union was 31.9%, twice as high. According to CJE, which considers all people between 16 and 29 years old as the young population, even higher education is no guarantee of being able to leave the family home.
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If the analysis is expanded to include people up to 34 years old, it appears that “in 2022, 69.1% of young Spaniards between 16 and 34 years old continued to live in the family home.” This is a percentage 10 points higher than 10 points ago years because they have delayed their emancipation from the family home in recent decades,” according to data from the BBVA and Ivie reports. While 42.1% of young people aged 16 to 34 were emancipated in 2008, the proportion had fallen to 30.9% in 2022.
Professor Emeritus of the University of Valencia and Research Director of the Ivie, Francisco Pérez, points out that “the main reasons for the delay in emancipation are the extension of their training years for higher education and the difficulties in obtaining economic autonomy.” And this is due to both the problems with access to stable and sufficiently paid employment as well as affordable housing.” The extension of studies is reflected in the fact that emancipation is only possible to a very limited extent by the time the majority of young people complete their studies is. In 2022, the emancipation rate among young people under 24 was only 7.3% (less than half compared to 2008). But once this age is passed, emancipation progresses slowly due to economic independence. Between the ages of 25 and 29 it is barely above 36%. Among 30 to 34 year olds it does not reach 70% (69.8%).
The consequences of many people continuing to live with their parents after the age of 30 are obvious. “They are negative in very relevant aspects, such as the birth rate and the clarification of their expectations for their life projects. This is not good news for a society that wants to be seen as inclusive and able to offer opportunities to new generations,” says Professor Pérez. The general director of Injuve adds: “The fact that there are no certainties about a life cycle completely affects one’s life plans.” If one is struggling to make ends meet or needs to change basic consumption habits, it is difficult to think about purchasing “Thinking about owning a home or starting a family, with all the associated costs.”
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