“The housing access crisis in Spain: young people caught between prices and scarcity”

The housing shortage in Spain

The housing shortage in Spain has become an access crisis that hits young people particularly hard, and also people at later stages of life. In cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia or Málaga, the combination of soaring prices, residual supply and extreme requirements has turned leaving the parental home into an almost unreachable horizon.

In 2024, 20.4% of households were renting, a record figure, compared with 13% in 2005. Far from improving, the situation is getting worse: only 14.8% of young people have managed to become independent, the lowest rate on record.

The imbalance between income and prices is alarming. Overall, Spaniards devoted an average of 47% of their gross salary to rent in 2024 — well above the 30% limit considered sustainable — while in Madrid and Catalonia that effort rose to 71% and 64% respectively. In that context, 92.3% of a young person’s salary is needed to cover rent — youth independence plummeted to 15.2%.

Prices give no respite either. In Madrid, the rent for a three-bedroom flat has gone from €1,200 to nearly €2,300 in five years, according to experiences shared on social media. And in general, rental prices in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia or Málaga rose by more than 10% year on year in 2025.

The number of mortgages has soared to 14-year highs — 243,257 loans in the first half, 25% more than in 2024 — despite the shortage of supply. Even so, access to housing remains extremely limited. Rooms in shared flats, often the last resort for many young people, have also become more expensive: in Barcelona the average price is €570, in Madrid €527, even though supply rose by 24%.

Furthermore, although construction has shown some recovery, there is still a structural housing deficit: the Bank of Spain estimated that between 450,000 and 600,000 homes are missing to balance supply and demand.

The consequences are tangible: thousands of young people give up the search for a home to buy or rent, and the age of independence keeps getting later, with Spain above the European average on this point. Precariousness and housing exclusion are multiplying: more than 40% of tenants spend more than 30% of their income — and several exceed 40% — which creates poverty after paying rent.

This evident access crisis, especially critical for the youngest, stems from a chronic shortage of supply, a lack of developable land and urban planning rigidity. Since 2015, an average of 75,000 homes a year have been started, compared with almost 120,000 new households being formed, which reveals a structural deficit.

The result cannot be read as a minor generational challenge: we are facing a structural access problem that erodes social cohesion and equality of opportunity. Many young people are condemned to share housing well into their 30s, freezing their capacity to save, buy or move.

The alarm does not come from one sector, but from the reasoning that a fundamental right is turning into an inaccessible luxury.