Mortgages account for 41% of salary, on average
In 2019, the average monthly mortgage repayment was 591 euros, in Spain, according to the College of Notaries. Looking at renting, the average monthly rent was 966 euros. In both cases, the percentage or monthly income allocated to housing costs is well above that recommended by the Bank of Spain.
“The economic capacity of families is fundamental, since it is individuals who monopolize the majority of purchases/sales. The imbalance between wages and the price of housing must be compensated with help from the Public Administration to protect market access for the entire population“, said Ferran Font, from pisos.com.
Spanish society is currently experiencing a situation of maximum economic difficulty, due to the covid-19 pandemic, that may aggravate its ability to meet the growing cost of their expenses this year and, therefore, could increase difficulties for people to make their wages stretch to the end of the month.
Growing Disparity
The Bank of Spain recommends a person should not spend more than one third of their monthly income on housing costs (mortgage or rental payments). However, in 2019, Spanish homeowners dedicated 41% of their monthly net income to paying their mortgage, whose average fee was 591 euros. In the case of renting, with average rents at 966 euros per month, the percentage of income dedicated to monthly rental costs was 67%, more than double that recommended by the Bank of Spain.
The National Institute of Statistics (INE) underpins an analysis made by pisos.com into living conditions in Spain, published last week, which provides information on the difficulties faced by Spanish households in meeting monthly expenses considered as essential. The report highlights that the average income per household in 2019 was 17,287 euros per year, which yields a net income per household of 1,440 euros per month, a figure that does not always make it possible to buy a property in Spain or afford rental payments in the most expensive cities in the country.
Director of Studies at pisos.com, Ferran Font, makes the following analysis of the real estate market in relation to average income in Spain: “The economic capacity of families is fundamental for the future of our residential market, it is individuals buying homes who monopolize the vast majority of sales each year. It is clear that in Spain there is a very difficult imbalance to resolve between wages and housing prices, so it is essential to protect the consumer and promote aid from the Public Administration to safeguard the right of access to the market for the entire population, avoiding the exclusion of certain groups.”
In this sense, the INE warns that 7.8% of the Spanish population states that they make ends meet with great difficulty, 14.2% meet their needs but with difficulty and 27.3% with little difficulty. In relation to the type of household, the highest percentages of people with great difficulty making ends meet correspond to households made up of a single adults with dependent children (19.1%).
