MARÍA HERNÁNDEZ
Madrid
Updated on Monday, 5July2021-02: 12
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'Help to buy' The British plan to buy a home that Botín and the developers are betting on
Miguel Ángel
(34 years old) is looking for a house to buy in Malaga after several years living for rent but he cannot find anything that fits his budget (120,000 euros) and what fits is not habitable.
Emilia
(27) lives temporarily for rent in Madrid while her internship lasts, although she hopes to be able to return to Malaga and share a roof - if she can be her own - with her partner.
Luis
(32) lives with a friend in an apartment in the capital, although he has begun to track the market because he begins to see a mortgage more affordable than the rent he pays each month to his landlord.
If the future of housing in Spain had its own name, it would be yours.
Having a roof to live under has become one of the great problems for young people in Spain,
if we set the youth level at 35 years
. This has been happening for a long time, but the coronavirus pandemic has further aggravated the situation. If in 2008, coinciding with the beginning of the previous financial crisis, 54% of those under 29 years old owned a flat, currently that percentage has dropped to 26%, according to
Fotocasa
data
.
Prices, youth unemployment and job insecurity for a large part of young people pose too high barriers to purchase and many of them have moved into the rental market.
Especially in the last year.
Specifically, and according to data from the real estate portal, from 56% in February 2020 they went to 59.1% in February 2021.
Of course we have it more complicated than our parents.
We have more comforts, but before everyone with my age had their own roof and now they don't
Luis, 32 years old
The future seems uncertain and many prefer to look to the past, but they do not find peace there either.
Is it possible that today's young people have a harder time than their parents to have a home?
"Yes, of course we have it more complicated. Now we have more comforts, but before everyone with my age had their own roof and now not," says Luis.
"Inflation is the key. Now we young people have
more purchasing power
than our parents, but we cannot buy a house because the prices are very high," says Miguel Ángel.
Emilia points out the
job instability.
A double crisis
Sergio Nasarre,
director of the UNESCO Chair in Housing at the Rovira i Virgili University (URiV), agrees. "Millennials have already experienced two crises in their adulthood - that of 2008 and that of Covid-19 - and they know that if they want to have a house, a car and anything else, they are going to have to work for it. Nobody is going to give them anything as a gift. ", he comments. "That has also conditioned their way of understanding the world. They think that there is no future and they can hardly save either to rent or to buy, and that is the blockade that we are seeing now," says the professor.
Carmen Panadero
, president of
Wires
(Association of women managers and counselors in the real estate sector) advocates not looking at the current situation "with the same eyes with which we live" and warns that the worst of the accessibility problem is that "now It has become chronic in big cities like Madrid or Barcelona ".
Buying a home in these cities or in the rest of the country is difficult for millennials and for the rest of the later demographic alphabet.
The prices of real estate
, new and used, rose in the second quarter of 2021 by an average of 2% compared to the same period in 2020, to 1,421 euros per square meter, according to the latest statistics published by
Tinsa
.
"In the case of buying and selling, the obstacle faced by this age group is that they have the ability to pay a mortgage, but they lack the savings to make the initial outlay. We believe that the big problem is job insecurity that slows down their aspirations. And precisely from Fotocasa we perceive a lot of frustration because, in very high percentages, we detect that they have increased their intention to buy, even in the long term, "says
María Matos
, Director of Studies at Fotocasa.
What youth mortgages are there?
Drop down
According to Sergio Carbajal, head of mortgages at Rastreator, "some banks have specific mortgage products for young people, which are mainly characterized by a longer repayment period. However, for many young people, taking out a mortgage with longer terms is not entirely attractive and They are looking for products that allow them to finance more than the usual 80% ".
The comparator has compiled for EL MUNDO the mortgage loans designed specifically for the youngest buyers that are now in the market:
Kutxabank young mortgage
It stands out for its additional savings of 0.25% that can be made available on the Euribor until the age of 35 is reached.
This mortgage loan, which has no opening commission, offers a TIN of 1.45% during the first year and Euribor plus 0.64% from the second year and until one of the mortgage holders reaches 35 years of age, at which point the differential that will be added to the Euribor will go to 0.89%.
Cajasur young mortgage
It has an interest of 1.45% during the first year.
From the second year and until one of the mortgage holders turns 35, the cost will be Euribor plus 0.64%.
Afterwards, the TIN will become Euribor plus 0.89%.
Young Mortgage Cajasiete
It is intended for people under 36 years of age and offers financing for the acquisition of a home with a TIN of 1.99% for the first two years.
From that moment on, the interest will be Euribor plus 0.95%, if optional products such as life or home insurance are contracted and if the monthly income is higher than 1,200 euros, among other conditions.
If these requirements are not met, the interest to be paid will be Euribor plus 1.95%.
This mortgage has no opening commission and you have a term of 30 years to return the money.
Unicaja young mortgage
It is designed for young people between 18 and 35 years old and has the option of a fixed rate and a variable rate.
In the fixed rate modality, the TIN for the first six months is 1.85% and it can be maintained for the rest of the mortgage if a series of conditions are met, such as the direct debit payroll from 600 euros net per month, the direct debit of three basic receipts and the hiring of home insurance and life insurance associated with the loan.
If these requirements are not met, the interest for this fixed rate mortgage will be 2.85%.
Faced with the almost impossibility of buying, rent is gaining ground, although it continues to represent a problem in cities such as Madrid or Barcelona where the increase in prices in recent years has caused households to have to allocate more than 40% of their income to pay the rent.
"
I do not think that renting is a waste of money, but almost
, especially if you are renting in a place where you think you will stay for many years. 90% of people who rent do not do so for a temporary reason, but because they do not have the possibility or the ability to buy. Renting is not a way out, it is an obligation. It is comfort, but it is not the solution, "says Luis.
Beyond the economic dimension, difficulties in accessing a home also have sociological and demographic consequences to the extent that it conditions and delays other life experiences such as emancipation or motherhood.
Nasarre points out, for example, that Spain, only behind Malta, the second country in the EU where there are fewer children and that is also related to the lack of housing and a place to create a home and have roots.
Rent sign on a building in Madrid.
David Martínez
, CEO of Aedas Homes, warns that "if we are not capable of providing housing to the younger generations, the problem will go further because they will not be able to form a home and they will end up going to the places where they are allowed to do so. from the country".
And along these lines, Carmen Panadero assures that the lack of housing alternatives causes a
flight of talents or that talents do not come
.
"It is basic: to attract young people, the first thing that is necessary is for them to have a place to live," he says.
Vital impact
Reality again proves them right.
Miguel Ángel says that he has lived in several cities before arriving in Malaga and believes that if he had found a good option to buy a house in one of them he would have settled, instead of
practicing urban nomadism
for years.
"Several of my friends in Segovia have now bought their houses for a little less than 70,000 euros. I look at them with a certain envy and I think that I cannot go live alone because it is very expensive and it would take my salary. Perhaps in that sense yes It has conditioned me, because if I could, I wouldn't share a flat, "explains Luis.
Emilia has had to give up at some moments in recent years to develop her professional career and do an internship in her sector to work in others such as the hospitality industry in order to have a higher salary and be able to pay the rent together with her partner.
Coliving and cohousing
In Plan 2050, the Government foresees that the population living in a rental system will increase in the coming years and, with it, the difficulties of access to housing, especially in some more stressed cities.
Faced with this situation, the Executive is committed to encouraging alternative forms of tenure to freehold ownership and rent, such as
temporary ownership and shared ownership
.
"The collaborative economy could also break into the housing market of our country: some forms of shared housing, such as
cohousing
, can be an interesting option for both young and old, giving rise to
new forms of intergenerational coexistence
", point the document.
In real life, not everyone sees it so clearly.
"I do not consider
coliving
or anything similar. It is not a solution, but a patch to continue exploiting the housing problem," says Miguel Ángel.
Is creating thousands of subsidiaries forever the solution?
Can only the richest people own a home?
Do we want such a society?
Sergio Nasarre
Sergio Nasarre was one of the experts who participated in the drafting and considers that intermediate solutions such as
coliving
, shared or temporary ownership are just that, intermediate solutions with a view to saving and owning a home in the future, "but the truth is that young people have not been given a solution for housing. There is a lot of talk about putting affordable housing on the market, but that is also an economic cost for the State. Is creating thousands of subsidiaries forever the solution? richer people can own a home? Do we want a society like this? "asks the professor.
Future solutions
Coping with the situation of young people when faced with housing in Spain is not easy.
There is no single solution, but action must be taken on different fronts at the same time.
"The Public Administrations are trying to solve the situation through social housing and protected housing, which are necessary but not sufficient. We must do more," says Carmen Panadero.
On the purchase side, experts agree that the land concession processes should be unblocked to build and also promote financial initiatives that facilitate it, such as the
British
help to buy
that Italy has just copied or the public guarantees to give the 20 % of the down payment of a mortgage.
"The evolution of the market will depend on how we treat young people now. Facilitating access to housing is everyone's responsibility and for this, the often repeated public-private collaboration is needed, in which plans are implemented that promote the creation of more housing affordable both in rent and in purchase, "says María Matos.
It also points out the need to enable a package of direct aid for the group and trusts in the potential of the
future Housing Law
(if the Government finally manages to carry it out).
"The tax incentives that the new law intends, where owners would be reduced by 70% if they rent to persons under 35 years of age, can be a good measure to help increase the supply," he says.
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