2023-09-10 03:03:44
«It is very difficult to find something decent and cheap because the apartments are flying. Before, as soon as classes finished in June I started looking for an apartment and in a week I already had one for the next course, but this year until September I haven’t found anything in good condition. José David, 23, pays twice as much for his student room for the 2023/2024 academic year as his previous room in which he lived for three years. The offer has sunk and prices have skyrocketed. Specifically, according to a study by Fotocasa, sharing a home in Spain costs an average of 445 euros per month, that is, 50% more than 5 years ago (since 2018) and 73% more compared to 8 years ago (2015, when it cost 258 euros on average).
Third-year Graphic Design student and part-time waiter, José David pays 250 euros for a room (270 euros with expenses) in the center of Murcia. This price may seem cheap compared to large cities like Madrid or Barcelona, but you only have to look back three or four years to realize the acceleration that rentals have experienced. Four years ago, the first time José David became independent, he paid 150 euros (plus 30 euros for expenses) for a room in a duplex located on the outskirts of Murcia. The following year, he decided to look for new accommodation that was more central and close to his study center. Although somewhat old, he found a spacious and well-located room for 125 euros, half of what he will pay this course. Unfortunately, he had to leave it because the owner wanted to renovate the property.
Rubén (23 years old), a Law and International Studies student in Toledo and a waiter on the weekends, has been emancipated for three years, but he has to juggle to keep up with his studies and make ends meet. «In order to pay for the apartment I have had to sacrifice certain things, such as not going to the gym or doing other activities that involve less expense. I am paying 300 euros per month without expenses, since this year the rental price has risen quite a bit », he says. As in Murcia, this price may seem affordable, but it is considerably above what Rubén paid for a room three years ago. «The first time I became independent I paid 220 euros with expenses included. Prices have risen a lot, both in rent and supplies. Last winter we hardly put on the heating because otherwise the price would skyrocket », he explains. So much so, that Rubén currently has to allocate 75% of his income to pay the rent and expenses of the apartment.
In Madrid, the outlook is much more discouraging. Marta (27 years old), recently graduated from the Art School of her community, wants to come to Madrid to make a name for herself in the world of acting, but it is not being easy with housing through the roof and competing with thousands of other candidates. . «When I started searching last year, when I entered a real estate platform, the first and second search pages, if you filtered by the cheapest, were rents of 150 euros, but only for inmates, that is why they asked for so little, because they only “They used the room on weekends,” says Marta. «But throughout this summer I have seen that those same rents were already around 250 euros or 270 euros, only to use the room on weekends and work at the same time. If the rents for the boarders are like this, the rents for students are already another level,” she details.
This has led her to have to increase her initial budget from 250 euros for a room on the outskirts of Madrid to 300 euros without expenses included. «I am lucky because my father can help me with the expenses, but in many cases, if you go to study or want to look for a job opportunity, you end up trapped in a full day of something that is not your thing to be able to pay and live there. without being able to do what you had gone to do. “It’s very depressing,” she tells LA RAZÓN.
Then there is the problem of supply. «There are many candidates for very few apartments and this results in you sending hundreds of messages and making dozens of calls without receiving a response. They don’t answer or you arrange a visit and then they don’t show up. The few decent rooms fly by. They know that if you doubt there are a lot of people behind who are going to want the room, “she emphasizes. This has led Marta to define the experience of looking for a room in Madrid as “hostile”.
The increase in the cost of leases is widespread throughout Spain, although there are differences by autonomous community. Compared to eight years ago, the increase in room prices has shot up by over 50% in eight communities, such as Navarra (+115.7%), the Canary Islands (+91.6%), Catalonia (+82 ,6%), Valencian Community (+78.5%), Galicia (+56.3%), Community of Madrid (+55.0%), Region of Murcia (+51.9%) and Andalusia (+50 ,5%). Regarding prices, there are six regions where a room costs on average more than 400 euros: Catalonia (565 euros per month), Madrid (502 euros), Navarra (476 euros), Balearic Islands (474 euros), Basque Country (464 euros) and Canary Islands (423 euros).
You just have to visit a real estate portal to corroborate these data and testimonies. Price: 655 euros per month. No, it is not the rent of a complete home, it is the cost of a room in a shared apartment in Madrid. Living on Paseo de la Castellana has never been cheap, but for a couple of years it has been within the reach of very few pockets. The price is even higher if we add the 55 euros of monthly expenses estimated by the agency that advertises it through Idealista. Furthermore, as is usual, when you move in you have to pay an additional monthly payment as a deposit and, according to this advertisement, one month of “administration expenses”, the new term that many agencies use to continue charging fees despite the fact that The recent Housing Law prohibits it. Others have come to call them “non-refundable deposit month.”
For more than 700 euros you will have to live with seven other people, although at least you will have your own bathroom. Fortunately for him, because the rest of his roommates will have to share the only remaining bathroom in the house. In total, the owner pockets more than 3,600 euros per month, an amount that rises to even over 5,000 euros in homes with more rooms and higher prices. As we move away from the most central areas of Madrid, prices go down, but they are nowhere near those recorded several years ago. Ana (25 years old) tells LA RAZÓN that six years ago, when she started living in Madrid as a student, a room in Loranca (Fuenlabrada) cost her 230 euros per month. Now, similar rooms in the same area cost approximately 350 euros and there are also a large number of student rooms in the center of Fuenlabrada that go up to 450 euros.
«The average salary in Spain is 2,100 euros per month, according to Social Security. If we take into account that the recommendation of the control bodies is not to allocate more than 30% of the salary to pay for housing, the vast majority of applicants cannot afford to rent an entire home, since it is around 900 euros,” explains María Matos, Director of Studies and Fotocasa spokesperson. with the price of[[LINK:INTERNO|||Article|||64f5a57b1200b0e4adc109bb||| alquileres en máximos históricos –12 euros el metro cuadrado en agosto]]according to data from Idealista – the majority of young people, and not so young, have no other option than to share housing to be able to emancipate themselves, since it allows them to share expenses. However, almost half of Spaniards who share a home do not want to do so (44%), but are forced because they cannot pay a full rent on their own, according to the analysis “Profile of people who share a home” by Fotocasa.
“The economy has to improve a lot so that young people can once again have the hope of emancipation,” says Marta, who after weeks of searching for a room in Madrid finds herself becoming more and more unmotivated every day. “I think that perhaps at some point I will be able to leave my parents’ house, but I will have to share a flat with other people for a good part of my life because I will not have money to buy or rent an entire home,” he says. .
«I do not contemplate living alone in the near future. If prices stay the same or even drop a bit, I think the best option is to share a flat and reduce expenses. Getting ahead is much more difficult than a few years ago, since everything has gone up, rent, food, electricity…», Rubén points out in the same vein. “Fully emancipating yourself is a challenge that must be faced with a pair of noses, because it is not easy,” he adds. «Many classmates have to go back and forth from their towns to the university every day because they cannot afford a room. I couldn’t rent a room if it weren’t for the fact that I work and have a scholarship from the Ministry of Education. Seeing this situation, I do not see the year in which I will be able to live completely alone, “José David also laments.
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