{"id":61618,"date":"2026-08-25T00:38:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T04:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/young-people-flee-city-housing-costs\/25\/08\/2026\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T00:38:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T04:38:47","slug":"young-people-flee-city-housing-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/young-people-flee-city-housing-costs\/25\/08\/2026\/","title":{"rendered":"young people flee city housing costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Spain has a housing problem<\/a> that has been getting worse for years and has already changed the way its young people think about their future. Buying a flat<\/strong> in Madrid, Barcelona or M\u00e1laga is, for most people under 40, a mission impossible.<\/strong> Renting on your own is no more viable<\/a>: those who move out alone devote on average 98.7% of their salary to housing.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

The result is a generation that feels trapped<\/strong>: only 14.5% of young people<\/strong> aged 16 to 29 have managed to move out<\/strong>, and the average age for leaving the parental home<\/strong> has risen to 30<\/strong>, compared with 26 in the European Union. According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), 44.3% of young people<\/strong> aged 26 to 34 were still living in the family home in 2025. <\/p>\n

The previous generation was able to buy flats, cars and even second homes on an average wage. Today that is a pipe dream. With a shortage of housing and strong demand, purchase prices rose by 14.7% year on year in the past 12 months and rents by 10.9%, according to Bankinter, while wages for under-35s have barely grown in real terms.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

On top of this comes the overcrowding of cities<\/strong>, which have become urban spaces hosting more people than they can cope with, with high levels of pollution<\/a> and where it is impossible to find the rest and disconnection that still exist in the countryside. For all these reasons, more and more young people are swapping cities for depopulated villages<\/strong> where buying a home has not yet become an unattainable luxury.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

The village as a solution<\/strong> <\/h2>\n

In Spain it has always been a summer tradition to go back to the village.<\/strong> Every child had a village to go to, and those who did not went with friends to their grandparents’ village. The youngest enjoyed those communities, far from the hustle and bustle of the city, during their holidays: afternoons swimming in the river, a sandwich with sliced luncheon meat for tea, laughter and games with cousins. <\/p>\n

Those children are now adults who see buying a home in a big city as hugely complicated, so they are starting an exodus in reverse to that of their grandparents and parents, heading back to small municipalities<\/strong> where buying a house does not mean an Herculean effort. <\/p>\n

In this context, some of the generation who should now be buying their first flat in the city have started to look elsewhere. According to a Fotocasa Research study carried out in the first half of 2026, 13% of people looking for a home in Spain plan to move in the coming months to a municipality with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.<\/strong> They are not retirees seeking peace and quiet. They are young people, in the middle of their working lives, with a life project still to build. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n