The new district will make it a bit easier to leave the nest by 29.
Before the pandemic, it was already hard for young people to leave their family home. Things are even worse after Covid, as inflation has made things much harder. According to the Spanish Council for Youth Observatory, only 15.9% of young people aged 16 to 29 had managed to leave their family home in the second half of 2022. The percentage was 18.10% in 2019. 32.1% of young people in that age range have left home in Europe, proportionally more than twice than in Spain.
Only 4.1% of young people aged 14 to 24 in Spain have left their family home, as opposed to 17.7% in Europe. And young Spaniards aged 16 to 29 increasingly live in rental properties shared with non-relatives. In the first half of 2022, it was already the option selected by 34.5% of the total. Contrariwise, only 27.2% of young males leave their family home to live on their own, and only 14.7% of women aged 16 to 29 manage to do so, even though they are the majority in that age range.
Buying an apartment as become practically impossible for young people. They would need their net salary for almost four years to make a deposit. So most young people live mostly in rental properties. 630,000 took this option, 57.50% of those leaving the family home.
In the second half of last year, rent increased by 4.16%, which amounts, for a young person living alone, to 85.10 % of their net salary. For this reason, one out of every three young people is forced to share a rented property. And even in this option, they pay on average 26.8 % of their net salary, almost the individual limit recommended by the Bank of Spain (30%), which severaly limits their ability to save, according to the Council for Youth.
Housing for Young People in Madrid
Things are not much better in Madrid. The Council for Youth has warned that conditions to access the housing market, which were already among the hardest in Spain, worsened even more between January and June 2022. Average sale and rental prices underwent strong increases, by 8.95% and 5.84%, respectively.
The United Nations has defined affordable housing as that which requires less than 30% of the tenant’s or owner’s income. This option is hard to find for many young people, even if they share an apartment. It is obvious that a sufficient offering of affordable housing in the market is needed to revert this problem. Only then will this offering have an effect and provide moderate prices.
This is where Valdecarros, one of the largest areas of residential land to be placed on the market in Europe in the next 20 years, plays a key role. More than 51,000 new homes of the 150,000 that will be placed on the market in that period.
The Region of Madrid and the Madrid City Council, which hold a share of almost 36% in the Valdecarros project, will develop more than 21,000 homes here. The vast majority of this public land does not come from transfers properties. They come from purchases made by both institutions. Now they are the best guarantee to make affordable housing available to those groups that most need it, and specifically to young people.
Valdecarros has been designed with the goal of mimproving the access to housing of the people of Madrid, particularly young people and the middle classes. The gradual incorporation of such a extensive pool of homes will help to decrease part of the current tensions. The combined presence of the Madrid City Council and the Region of Madrid will not doubt intensify the contention effect and consolidate Valdecarros as a true hub for housing policies from now until the middle of this century.