NEARLY half the people in Spain who rent their homes would rather be owner-occupiers, although fewer than one in five young adults leaving the family nest for the first time will be moving straight into a property they have bought, according to recent research.
In a country where the home-owning tradition has long been overwhelmingly the dominant choice – at any one time, around eight in 10 adults not living with their parents are in houses or flats they own, with or without a mortgage – renting has increased in recent times among the young, especially where they want to guarantee they will be able to relocate easily for jobs.
According to the Spain Youth Council (CJE) in its Independent Living Observatory study, a total of 59.2% of first-time home-leavers move into rented accommodation, and just 17.4% buy their first dwelling.
How old are Spanish adults when they buy their first home?
Despite residential property continuing to be very affordable in most of Spain, even in highly-popular areas such as cosmopolitan coasts and large cities, becoming a first-time buyer remains difficult: Mortgage providers typically only lend up to 80% of the purchase price or market value, whichever is the lower, and buyers have to budget for a further 12.5% approximately to cover fees and taxes.
Fees are normally less than the 12.5% when buying outright, without a mortgage.
For a second or subsequent property, mortgages are usually capped at 60% loan-to-value.
Colliers Consultants, in their recent research report on first-time buyers across the continent – European Residential on the Rise – reveals the average age of a person in Spain purchasing a home for the first time is 41.
This is higher than the European average of 34, and also higher than approximately 20 years ago when Spaniards would typically be aged 33 the first time they exchanged contracts on a property – around the same, back then, as it was in the UK.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com