Before formalizing a mortgage, financial institutions require the buyer to have sufficient prior savings to cover, on the one hand, the initial contribution equivalent to 20% of the property's value and, on the other hand, approximately an additional 10% intended to cover the expenses inherent to the operation —taxes, notary, registry, and other management costs.
An analysis by pisos.com quantifies how many years the average citizen needs to gather that capital starting from a conservative but realistic assumption: saving 20% of their salary. To do this, the average gross monthly income for the fourth quarter of 2025 published by the INE is analyzed.
If the average salary in the archipelago is 2,055 euros gross per month according to the INE, annually it means 24,671. Saving 20% of that figure, an average worker can contribute 493 euros per month. With this saving, the average citizen in the Canary Islands would need 11 years to save the necessary money.
The calculation starts from the average housing price published by pisos.com corresponding to April 2026, taking as a reference a typical property of 90 square meters, which costs an average of 215,994 euros.
Canary Islands is the only autonomous community on the national average, which is also 11 years to gather that amount. In twelve communities it takes less time than in the Canary Islands and in four it takes more time.
Balearics and Madrid, out of reach
The analysis reveals a territorial gap of extraordinary proportions. In Balearic Islands, the average sale price stands at 5,163 euros per square meter, which raises the cost of a 90 m² apartment to 464,673 euros. The 30% that must be saved beforehand exceeds 139,000 euros. At a savings rate of 6,074.40 euros annually, reaching that amount requires almost 23 years: practically a quarter of a century of constant and uninterrupted savings to be able to aspire to buy a home on the islands.
With an average price of 4,568 euros/m², a 90 m² home in Madrid costs 411,082 euros. The prior effort required exceeds 123,000 euros, which translates to 20 years of savings. Behind Madrid, Basque Country (14 years) and Catalonia (13 years) complete the group of communities where the path to ownership far exceeds a decade.
"In these markets the problem is no longer whether one can pay the mortgage, but whether one will ever be able to gather the down payment. They are two different obstacles, and the first has become the most difficult to overcome for middle-income families," says Ferran Font, spokesperson and director of Studies at pisos.com.
More than ten years for the previous 30%
At an aggregate level, the data paint a picture of Spain where access to owner-occupied housing requires, in practically all its communities, a savings effort that extends for years. Canary Islands (11 years) is very close to the national average, while Valencian Community, Cantabria, and Navarre are around nine years. In none of these cases is it an immediate horizon.
The data is even more revealing if you consider that the reference salary used in the analysis is the gross, not the net. Once IRPF withholdings and Social Security contributions are applied, the real savings capacity of an average worker is significantly lower than the 506.20 euros per month contemplated. The years needed, in practice, are considerably more.
At the opposite end of the ranking are Extremadura and Castilla y León, the only communities where the purchase of a 90 m² home can be afforded in less than five years with the established savings rate. In Extremadura, the average price of 851 euros/m² places the cost of the property at 76,590 euros, and the prior savings effort at just 22,977 euros. In Castilla y León, with a price of 959 euros/m², a typical property costs 86,302 euros.
While in Castilla-La Mancha 6 years are required, Galicia, Murcia, La Rioja and Aragón make up the group of communities where the objective of prior savings can be achieved within a period of 7 years which, although demanding, is more manageable. In all these cases, the price per square meter does not exceed 1,600 euros.
"That in some communities the term is four or five years compared to twenty or more in others is not a minor detail: it reflects that Spain actually has several radically different real estate markets coexisting under the same national umbrella. And that gap is not closing, but widening," argues Font.
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