The housing crisis currently experienced by Spain particularly affects young people. Youth emancipation is at its lowest point in history, burdened by rising housing prices and job insecurity. While rental prices have grown by 77% in ten years, household income has only done so by 33%.
Housing prices have reached new historical highs in the Canary Islands, one of the most expensive autonomous communities in Spain, where the square meter now amounts to 3,281 euros. In several tourist municipalities of Lanzarote, the regional average is also exceeded: Tías (3,873 euros) and Yaiza (3,737 euros).
The current situation means that buying a home is not an option for most young people in Spain. Currently, "youth is a tenant generation," warns the report Equilibristas 2.0, prepared by the Youth Council of Spain, "that the housing crisis is above all a rental crisis, means that youth today have worse conditions for emancipation" than their parents had.
Until 2006, only 14% of the population born in Spain lived in rented accommodation, but that figure grew to 41% in 2024. The figure is higher among foreigners, as nearly 80% of young people live with a rental contract.
Rent payment: a factor of impoverishment
Always according to the same source, housing costs generate a situation of economic vulnerability for tenants after paying rent. Due to its high costs, renting has become a factor of impoverishment, significantly increasing the risk of poverty after making the monthly payment.
In contrast, almost half of young people who have accessed homeownership have needed financial support from family or friends to be able to afford it. "Access to property does not depend exclusively on individual career paths, but also on family economic resources," the study indicates, even on "the socioeconomic position of origin."
Thus, the research adds that covering mortgage payments generates a "much more moderate" risk of poverty than facing rent. Thus, rent not only entails a greater economic effort but also has "a more intense impact" on social vulnerability.
A problem dragged since the real estate bubble and aggravated today
The report states that the 2008 crisis, caused by the housing bubble, generated a setback in wages and a slight decrease in rental prices and mortgage interest rates. However, the weakening of salaries led to a delay in emancipation. Then, starting in 2015, prices began to escalate, aggravating the gap between income and rental costs.
From 2017 onwards, the rental price surpassed the wages of young people. After a brief decline due to the pandemic, a rebound was recorded, and in 2025, historical highs were reached in the country.
The difficulties in accessing decent housing become a mental health problem, affecting the stability, autonomy, and vital security of young people.
Traditionally, young people got married and acquired a property, but roles have changed, and new family models have also favored forms of emancipation such as living alone or with people outside the family.
With the labor reform, the high rate of temporary contracts among young people is reconfigured, exceeding one and a half million permanent contracts, while permanent discontinuous contracts were placed at around 400,000.