The loss of purchasing power among young people – 20.6% of the labor force is at risk of poverty or social exclusion – and the relentless rise in property prices – the average rent is more than 80% of the average young man’s salary – contribute to it being for Spanish youth almost impossible to become independent. This is reflected in the Emancipation Observatory of the Spanish Youth Council (CJE) in its overall assessment for the second half of 2022 presented this Friday, which concludes that the proportion of young people living outside the family home was 15.9%, i.e half the European Union average (31.9%). The average age of independence is 30.3 years, the age range of a young person is 18 to 30 years according to the CJE; For the EU, however, it is 34. The figure, which is above 30 for the first time, is the highest since the report began publishing two decades ago. “Since the data became available, we have noticed something unusual this year. Young people are no longer emancipated, they are when they stop being,” emphasized Andrea González Henry, President of the CJE. Which is summed up in an “elderly emancipated population”.
Esteban Pérez is 26 years old and lives with his family in Dos Hermanas in Seville. He wants to leave the nest because “it’s a fundamental step that needs to be taken to develop and move forward” but at the moment he can’t. In the past he has shared a flat in Barcelona and Madrid. They are the most expensive cities in Spain – a shared flat in Barcelona costs an average of 575 euros per month; in the capital, 527, according to the latest Fotocasa report – but then he had salaries that allowed him to. For Juan Antonio Báez, Vice-President and Head of Socio-Economics at the CJE, there is another phenomenon that is becoming increasingly common in Spain: youth mobility. “Young people who are emancipated had to move from province to province. Only 10% of those who leave home live in the same province.” Pérez doesn’t have a job now. Yes, savings, but they don’t allow him an emancipated life. For this reason, a few months ago, he decided To as a subsidized housing applicant (VPO) in his municipality in order to be able to move into the Entrenúcleos subsidized residential area in Dos Hermanas, which is still under construction. “Since they are financed by the administration, they are cheaper than free housing,” he explains.
In any case, a job is no guarantee that you can afford your own apartment, either by buying or renting it. Although the average salary of young people increased by 4.6% and reached €13,079.19 net per year (or €1,089.93 net per month), the cost of rented accommodation increased by 7.55% in the second half of 2022, according to the report the average rent for a home at that time was 912 euros. In other words, a young professional would have to spend 83.7% of their salary just covering rent. Add to that the average €141 spent on utilities and services in a home (e.g. water, electricity or gas) for a total of €1,053 per month, which is 96.6% of his salary. In other words, you would only have 36.93 euros for groceries, clothes and leisure.
In 2023, the prospects are even worse. Being able to pay the full rent for a house has become a luxury and many young people are forced to live in shared apartments. While it’s a cheaper option, room rates have skyrocketed and are nearly as high as renting an entire house a few years ago. The average rent for a room at the end of 2022 was 282.19 euros. According to the latest study by Fotocasa, it now costs an average of 440 euros per month. Last year, rent was 25.9% of the average salary for young people. This is 40% in 2023, more than the 30% set by the European control bodies. The average financial outlay – the part of the salary that the citizen spends on financing the house – has increased by 66.2% since 2015, according to the real estate portal.
“They called me, I looked at the apartments and basically I accepted them. I have a reservation of 3,300 euros and paid an additional 10% of the house value. I say basically because when the apartment is ready, which will be by the end of 2025, I need to be in a permanent contract job with a steady salary and certain accumulated savings in order to get a mortgage. Difficult. But if they don’t grant it to me, at least I get my money back. If it weren’t for this opportunity, I would be light years away from becoming independent,” explains Pérez, who has journalism and a master’s degree in documentary and transmedia journalistic reporting. “I would need a permanent job and that is very complicated as a journalist. In the end, I might have to stop working on what I studied,” laments the boy, who, like 22.2% of young Spaniards, is unemployed.
In addition, for both Pérez and many other young people, the possibility of applying for a mortgage is excluded. The average initial fee for buying a home at the end of 2022 was €49,852.20, equivalent to 3.8 full salary years for a person under the age of 30. And for the young workers who managed to get access to one, the average initial monthly fee was €661.33, which is 60.7% of the average salary for a worker under 30 years old.
The myth of the meritocracy
Like most of his generation, Pérez grew up with the myth that more education and hard work would lead to greater economic stability and thus guarantee decent housing. That young people could enjoy certain comforts if they tried hard enough. “It’s the false myth of meritocracy,” defines Juan Antonio Báez, Vice President of the CJE, who argues: “We were promised that with a degree, a master’s degree and a PhD, we would have a job that matched our academic training .” would enable us to have a wonderful life. Nothing is further from reality. What this discourse has created is a serious problem of overqualification and a huge unwanted bias.”
Esteban Pérez in his bedroom at his parents’ home in Dos Hermanas, Seville. Juan Carlos Toro
In the period studied, 42.6% of those under 30 with higher education worked in a position that required less education than they had. And nearly half of part-time workers did so involuntarily. “And that’s our fault, as they say?” Baez wonders. “No, that is a consequence of a lack of political action. Although the labor reform and the increase in the minimum wage for professionals have improved the situation, a state pact is needed, a real alliance between the population and the public and private sectors, to improve the housing and employment situation in Spain,” he affirms. . The Vice-President of the CJE also describes this pact as a necessary measure to improve the situation: “We must stop treating housing as a market good and use it as a real good”. We are fed up with young people repeatedly claiming that we are for them situation in which we find ourselves.” The President of the CJE agrees, stressing that young people are “underrepresented” in decision-making when it comes to shaping public policy.
In Spain, higher education is not a guarantee of independence. In the second half of 2022, only 22.9% of young people who had completed vocational training or university studies had achieved emancipation. In fact, the rate of emancipation between them and young people who do not continue their studies is similar.
But the problem of youth goes far beyond the general inability of young workers to become independent. In the second half of 2022, every fifth employed person under the age of 30 was in a situation of poverty or was at risk of social exclusion and therefore did not reach the minimum welfare thresholds. This not only poses material challenges for young people, but also affects their mental health due to the insecurity it brings. Nuria, who has a degree in political science and administration with a dozen honors, a master’s degree in criminology and penitentiary with the top mark of doctorate and various specialization courses, but a job for which she earns 1,100 euros that does not allow him in his city of Barcelona to emancipate, it explains: “I think what affects him is this feeling that things are not going well, that the future is not what you expected, that the jobs are not working out the way you want them to .” And the uncertainty. Add to that the fact that everything costs a lot of money and the social pressure that young people feel to become independent and save at the same time.”
With information from Ana Cristina Basantes
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits