Home Ownership Above EU Average in Spain
New data from the statistics office of the European Union –
Eurostat- - shows that 78% of Spaniards would describe themselves as being homeowners. As a result Spain is ahead of the EU average of 70%, but the number
is a little smaller than the number of 2007; when 81% of Spaniards were
homeowners.
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Buying property in the Costa del Sol and Spain
continues to be very popular
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It is the former communist countries that are performing the
best with home ownership rates in Europe. Over 95% of Romanians and 90% of
Croatians own the homes they live in.
Analysts believe that these figures are an indication of how
poorly the real estate market is performing in these countries. They point
towards Germany – with it’s regulated rental market – where only 51.9% of
Germans are homeowners because renting is the norm there.
It looks like the younger Spanish generation, particularly
the Millennials, are not all that interested in owning property because they
grew up in a culture where owning things has been replaced by leasing cars,
renting mobile phones, and even streaming music and television.
However the slightly contracted rates of home ownership in
Spain are caused more by the lasting damage of the past two recessions.
Millennials found themselves hit the most by the lean years and so they lack
both the confidence and the funds to even think about owning property.
This particular anomaly could be changing however following
the latest data from the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) showing
that mortgage approvals continue to increase and that young Spaniards are eager
to take their first steps on the property ladder.
Even though there are large upfront costs associated with
owning a home it does prove to be more cost-effective than renting a property in Spain. The data from Eurostat also shows that Spaniards who rent a property
end up paying around 23% more per month on average than their counterparts who
purchase property through an owner-occupier mortgage.
