Job insecurity, less family support and lack of public policies: the cocktail that increases the residential insecurity of young people

Access to housing is one of the main concerns for young people in Spain and it is not a perception: the country is at the head of Europe where those under 35 years of age face more

whether rented or owned.

In recent years, moreover, the residential insecurity of this group has increased, unlike other countries in southern Europe whose markets have traditionally been comparable.

The picture is like a whiting biting its tail: the precariousness of the working and socioeconomic conditions of the youngest

and when they do, their options in the market are more limited, either because the rents are too high or because they do not meet the requirements to obtain a mortgage that gives them access to the property.

The result is a panorama of residential insecurity that drags on generationally and delays leaving the family home.

Furthermore, this dynamic is causing the Spanish model to move away from southern Europe, which continues to be characterized by high residential stability.

"In other southern countries, young people can access housing that is provided by the family network or that can be purchased with the help of their resources. This was something common in our system, but it has been progressively lost.

", points out the report

included in the book

promoted by the Social Observatory of the La Caixa Foundation.

The work makes an extensive journey through inequality in Spain and within that x-ray, housing occupies a fundamental chapter.

Among other issues, the authors highlight that job insecurity, lack of family support and the absence of specific public policies make up a

when buying or renting a home and, in addition, increases overexertion economic that they must bear.

"Around 50% of households headed by people under 50 years of age in the market rental or property with a mortgage regime had to make an economic overexertion to meet the monthly housing payments in 2014. This level was reached as a consequence of the great financial crisis, and although the overexertion decreased from that moment on, it currently remains at high levels in terms of market rent", reflects the study.

In the case of those under 35 years of age,

economic overexertion to pay for their home, while the percentage drops to around 20% when it comes to home ownership.

leave the nest

The data used for the study comes from the Living Conditions Survey, its European equivalent (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) and the Family Financial Survey and although the authors stop just before the outbreak of Covid-19, They point out that "clearly worrying" parameters were already perceived in the market at that time.

The subsequent pandemic has exacerbated these difficulties for the youngest, taking into account that both rentals and purchase prices have skyrocketed to record levels in many cities in the country.

But the first stumbling block of all, both before and after the coronavirus, continues to be late emancipation.

"Less than 70% of young people aged 30-34 have been emancipated, which is the first, and perhaps the most important, of the residential problems in Spain," the study collects.

It has been a feature of the Spanish market for decades and according to those responsible for the report headed by

, a member of the Center for Demographic Studies and Department of Geography at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​"the cause of this delay must be found in the conditions socioeconomic, which prevent young people from being able to become independent".

Once emancipated, the residential options open to young people are almost exclusively limited to market rent and mortgaged property.

"These two options, regulated mainly by the market, require significant payments on a monthly basis, in a context of strong job insecurity and instability and without efficient public policies that protect households in difficulty. The safest alternatives in the long term are minority ", they add.

Renting with some type of official protection or with reduced income is very rare among young people, as well as in the rest of the ages.

Much less frequent is access to property without payment, directly by inheritance or by donation.

"It can be argued that there is an explanatory relationship between the delay in emancipation and the high exposure to the market of the residential options of young people," the report points out.

And he argues, saying that the fact that only 68% of young people aged 30-34 have been emancipated, surely has to do with the fact that almost 70% of these have to face a market rent or mortgage payments. .

"Youth's job insecurity would only aggravate their residential instability," he concludes.

concrete measures

Not surprisingly, Spain is one of the European countries where young people have more economic problems related to housing and

in recent years alleviates the overload on their accounts.

"Residential overexertion is the result of the combination of low income and lack of more affordable housing options, especially when it comes to rent. The expansion of rent in recent decades, together with the lack of effective protection for the most vulnerable households, points out that the seriousness of the residential overexertion that we observe in Spain does not occur in other countries where the regulation and protection of access to housing by public authorities are more developed", the study collects.

Only the United Kingdom is ahead of Spain in terms of the proportion of households with overexertion in terms of renting and only Germany surpasses us in terms of households that support a mortgage.

"It is not surprising to find that Spain is at the head of the countries analyzed in terms of overexertion," says the report.

Faced with this situation, the authors propose specific actions such as direct and indirect aid that promote residential emancipation at an earlier age;

moving from housing policies focused on stimulating residential construction to policies focused on the management of the existing stock or favoring the most vulnerable groups, taking advantage of "those homes that remain vacant and have a difficult time getting out of the normal market to channel them to the groups most needy".

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