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RENTING

Ten ways under-35s in Spain can get help to buy a home

Buying a home is particularly difficult for young people in Spain, with low wages, job instability and rising property prices making it a pipe dream for most. But there are several schemes throughout Spain to help make it a reality.

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Buying a home in a rural location is one the ways young people in Spain can climb on the property ladder. (Photo by THOMAS SAMSON / AFP)

Many young people in Spain who can afford to move out of their parent’s house cannot yet afford to buy their own home, with down payments and securing a mortgage two of the biggest problems.

According to FotoCasa six in 10 young people in Spain between the ages of 18 and 34 have tried to buy a property, but without success.

The Emancipation Observatory of the Spanish Youth Council (CJE) adds that currently in Spain 59.2 percent of young people rent, while only 17.4 percent own their own property and pay a mortgage. Data shows that most Spaniards aren’t able to buy their own property until they are 41 years old. 

Luckily there are now several government schemes across the country that aim to help young people get on the property ladder. Here are 10 ways that under-35s can get help to buy their first home.

Buying a home in a rural location

The Spanish government introduced a subsidy of €10,800 for those under 35 who wish to purchase a property in towns or villages with less than 10,000 inhabitants, in a bid to help solve the problem of declining rural populations, as well as the issue of young people not being able to afford to buy a home. This is available until December 2022 and can be applied for through the authorities in your region. 

Andalusia

Andalusia announced its ‘First Home Programme’ earlier this year, which is independent but runs parallel to the State Housing Plan. It includes aid of up to €10,800 for the acquisition of habitual residence for young people under 35.

Castilla y León

Those in Castilla y León can apply for aid if they want to live in the province of Soria. Aid is available up to 50 percent, up to a maximum of €5,000 to buy in rural areas within the province. People up to the age of 36 can apply. Find out more on how to apply here

Canary Islands

Young people from the Canary Islands can apply for a housing benefit in 2022 of 20 percent of the cost of the property up to a maximum of €11,000. You are eligible up until the age of 36. Find out more about the aid here

Galicia

Galicia is giving assistance to those wanting to buy in the historic centres of towns and cities. Those aged 35 and under can get up to €12,800 to help them do this, which in turn will help to revive and rejuvenate the oldest parts of the region. You need to apply here before November 15th in order to be in with a chance. 

Madrid

In July 2022, the government of Madrid announced an aid package for young people aged 35 and under. The banks, along with the government of Madrid, will grant mortgage loans for amounts greater than 80 percent and up to 95 percent of the value of the property, provided that the purchase price doesn’t exceed €390,000.

READ ALSO: Why Madrid is now the easiest place in Spain for under-35s to buy their first home

Murcia

The government of Murcia guarantees an aid package of 20 percent, up to €10,850 for those up to the age of 35 who want to buy their own home by getting a mortgage loan. Find out more and apply for the aid here

Valencia region

In Spain’s Valencia region, the Ministry of Housing and Bioclimatic Architecture aims to help make it possible for young people to buy a home who might not otherwise be able to, as well as help towns and villages that are at risk from de-population. The amount each applicant can get will be 20 percent of the value of the price of a house, up to a maximum of €10,800 per person. The cost of the property cannot exceed €120,000 and it must be your main and permanent home. It is available to those up to the age of 35.

READ ALSO: How young people in Spain’s Valencia region can get €10k to buy a home

Aid for large families

Large families or familias numerosas as they are called in Spanish are defined as families who have four or more children. Large families can also benefit from state aid when buying a property, which is €10,800 as long as it does not exceed 20 percent of the property price. When buying a property, these families can also get help by benefiting from a discount on the payment of the Property Transfer Tax (ITP), up to four percent on second-hand purchases. 

Aid for renting

If you can’t yet afford to buy your own property, there are several benefit schemes for young people to be able to move out of their parent’s home and be able to rent instead. The Bono Alquiler Joven allows those between 18 and 35 to get €250 per month to go towards rent and is available across the country. There are various other schemes in different regions too. Find out more and apply here

Be aware, most of these schemes are only available for certain amounts of time and strictly for those who do not already own a property. There may also be prerequisites on the amount of time you have lived in each region. For example, those wanting to benefit from the aid package in Madrid must have lived in the region for the two years leading up to their application.

There are also certain limits as to the amount you can earn in order to be eligible for the benefit. In Valencia, your income must be equal to or less than three times the IPREM (€6984.24 per year for 2022).

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PROPERTY

Why Spain is unlikely to ever ban foreigners from buying property

After several regions around Spain have attempted to bring in limits on property purchases by foreigners, members of Spain's government coalition have even started floating the idea of an outright ban at a national level.

Why Spain is unlikely to ever ban foreigners from buying property

In recent years several regions around Spain have attempted to put limits on foreigners buying homes and clamped down on tourist rentals. These are mainly in areas traditionally popular with foreigners, and many have become places with highly inflationary property markets.

In 2022 Canary nationalist political party Nueva Canarias demanded the regional government address the large number of property purchases by non-residents in the archipelago, and even suggested a limit on the number of properties that can be bought by foreigners altogether in the popular holiday islands.

READ ALSO: Will Spain’s Canary Islands limit sale of properties to foreigners?

Property prices have surged across Spain in recent years, sparked in part by an influx of post-pandemic purchases by foreigners, as well as tourist accommodation geared towards wealthy remote workers and digital nomads pushing up rental prices and pricing out locals. Increasingly, landlords will buy properties with the aim of converting them into Airbnbs, thus removing them from the pool of available (and affordable) housing stock for locals.

This comes after Spain’s other archipelago, the Balearic Islands, also started this same debate in November 2022, with the regional Senate agreeing to discuss solutions.

In the two decades from 2000-2020, the islands’ population grew by 50 percent – rising from 823,000 to 1,223,000 inhabitants. Around a third (32.67 percent) of property purchases in the Balearics are made by foreigners, and of those 57.4 percent are residents, while the remaining 42.6 percent are non-residents.

National ban?

But it’s not just a regional issue. In 2024, the debate rumbles on in parts of Spain particularly affected by foreign home owners and members of the Spanish government are even proposing similar measures at a national level. Though, it should be said, no policy has been decided on yet, and any move such as a ban (in whatever form, on whatever type of property) or even a limit would likely face fierce opposition from the main opposition parties, notably the centre-right Partido Popular (PP).

Sumar, the far-left junior coalition partner in the Spanish government, has even gone as far as proposing a three year ban on the purchase of housing by investment funds and non-residents in Spain.

This was recently outlined in a (for now) non-legislative proposal that was presented to the Spanish Congress’ Housing Commission. It was roundly rejected with the vote of, among others, its coalition partner in government, the Socialists (PSOE). That’s not to say the PSOE is totally against the idea, however.

Socialist Minister for Housing Isabel María Pérez said of the plans: “We agree on the philosophy of the proposal, but with nuances,” she said. “We have submitted an amendment but we think it will not be accepted, so we will not be able to support this bill,” she added.

So, from that we can take that the junior partner in the Spanish government wants to ban non-residents and investment funds from buying property in Spain, and the senior partner (Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s party, no less) supports the principle but not the practicalities.

READ ALSO: Spain’s new housing minister vows to protect second homeowners

The argument against

Clearly, non-resident foreigners buying up property in Spain, particularly in its space starved archipelagos, contributes to price inflation, saturates the market, and plays a role in pricing locals out of their own neighbourhoods.

However, it’s not that simple. Clearly, there is a difference between a non-resident foreigner buying a holiday home (perhaps to rent out as tourist accommodation for half the year) and a resident foreigner buying property to live in.

READ ALSO: How important are foreign second homeowners to Spain?

This difference has, for now, been reflected in proposed limits at both the regional and national level, rather than outright bans.

However, foreign home owners in Spain also make a huge contribution to the Spanish economy. In 2022 foreigners with a second home in Spain contributed €6.35 billion to Spanish GDP and generated more than 105,000 jobs in the tourism sector, according to the study “The economic impact of residential tourism in Spain” done for the Spanish Association of Developers and Builders (APCE) by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

The financial contribution made by these second-home owners in Spain is clearly significant. In fact, experts point out that the money brought into the Spanish coffers by foreign homeowners even outstrips some major industries.

“The contribution of residential tourism to GDP is triple that of the textile industry, double that of the timber industry and the same as the manufacture of pharmaceutical products in Spain,” Anna Merino, director of the Economics team at PwC, said when presenting the study. Every euro spent by ‘residential tourists’ adds €2.34 to Spanish GDP. On top of this direct contribution to the Spanish economy, the surrounding economic activity associated with the spending generated 105,600 full-time jobs in 2022.

So, there’s clearly an economic argument against banning foreign property purchases completely.

In the case of the Balearic Islands specifically, the proposals have met some opposition. The Balearics, which generates 35 percent of its GDP from tourism, according to figures from Caixa Bank, has long been a holiday or second-home hub for wealthy foreigners.

On this point, right-wing Popular Party member Sebastià Sagreras suggested in the regional parliament back in 2022 that conflating the foreign-buyer property market with local shortages is unhelpful, adding that the properties bought by foreigners, often worth more than a million euros, “do not compete” with those that cost €200,000 or €250,000 and are largely bought or rented by national residents.

Is it even legally possible?

Denmark, Malta and the Aland Islands in Finland all have restrictions on how non-resident foreigners can buy properties in their territories. However, they introduced these before entering the EU and these limits were factored in and accepted by Brussels. For Spain to do this, it would be much more difficult.

For local authorities in both the Balearic and the Canary Islands it could prove difficult to go against the EU’s legal principles of the free movement of people and capital, experts say.

This means that other potential solutions may be needed. Though there doesn’t seem to be a national level ban on foreigners from buying properties in Spain anytime soon, several regions have been attempting to do it for a couple of years, at least for non-residents, and even the national government is beginning to try and do something about it.

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