More families in Spain opt to rent

SPAIN’S long-established tradition of home ownership could be on the wane, as more and more struggling families look to rent.
For decades, buying a home has been the norm for Spaniards, and part of the reason young people tend to stay longer in the parental home as they save up to get their own place.
But the Spanish National Statistics Institute has found increasing numbers choosing to rent, with 16.6 per cent of households in rented accommodation in 2014. It’s a slight rise on 2013’s figure of 16.1 per cent, but a significant jump on the six per cent registered as renting just five years ago.
The study points out that foreign residents in Spain are still much more likely to rent than Spanish citizens, with 57.9 per cent of rented homes having at least one non-Spanish resident in the household. But the figures are on the rise for both immigrant households and for families where all members are Spanish-born.
The region with the highest level of rentals is the Balearics, also the region where the divergence between the average cost of buying a home and average income is highest. On the Islands, just over a quarter, 26.4 per cent, of homes are rented.
The Islands are followed by the autonomous city of Melilla, where again just over a quarter of homes are rented, and then Barcelona (24.1 per cent) and Madrid (22.9 per cent).
The province with the lowest percentage of rentals is Jaen, with just 8.2 per cent. Jaen is also one of the cheapest provinces to buy a home.
Nevertheless, home ownership remains the norm across Spain, with huge numbers living in the family home that has been paid off, the National Statistics Institute survey finding 48.5 per cent of households owning a home with no mortgage.