The percentage of young people under 35 who are owners of their main residence has plummeted to 36.7% in 2024, far below the 66% recorded in 2002, according to a study released by Funcas.
These conclusions come from the report "La situación actual de los jóvenes en España: integración laboral, educación, vivienda y emigración", which notes the strong setback in access to ownership among the new generations over the last twenty years.
In detail, the document points out that 36.7% of households whose main breadwinner is under 35 owned their usual home in 2024, compared with approximately 66% that owned it in 2002. The gap with households headed by people aged 65 to 74 reaches 46.1 percentage points, given that in this age group 82.8% have owner-occupied housing.
Likewise, Funcas warns that, in order to buy an average home in Madrid, a young person needs to accumulate a down payment equivalent to six years of full net salary, "with no living expenses whatsoever", which makes the leap to purchase enormously difficult.
RENTAL MARKET
The difficulty of accessing ownership has pushed much of the youth toward renting, but this market also offers no affordable options after a prolonged rise in prices. Between 2014 and 2024, rental rates have skyrocketed by 82%, while purchase prices have done so by 65%, well above the evolution of average wages (30%) and accumulated inflation (23%).
"The combination of these data produces financial effort results that far exceed the sustainability thresholds established in the economic literature and in European housing policies," the report warns.
In 2024, a young salaried worker who wants to rent a home alone at market prices must devote 92.3% of their salary, and 32.5% if they share an apartment, figures "far above" the 30% threshold "considered sustainable".
In parallel, the study indicates that the wages of young people aged 16 to 24 have fallen in relative terms from 69% of the average wage in 2006 to 58% in 2024. By contrast, the 25 to 34 age group has managed to recover almost the initial levels: in 2024 it receives 89% of the average wage, compared with 92% in 2006.
In the educational and labor sphere, Funcas points out that the 'nini' rate "has been improving significantly", falling from 22.5% in 2013 to 11.5% in 2025 and approaching the EU-27 average. Nevertheless, it underlines that "this convergence process is clearly slower for young men than for young women".
The document also emphasizes that Spain records the second-highest overqualification rate in the EU-27, above 32% in 2025 among young people aged 25 to 34, compared with 21.3% in the EU, with an average duration of this mismatch exceeding ten years.
OVEREDUCATION
Along the same lines, the report states that Spain is "recurrently" among the European countries with the highest incidence of overeducation, with a little over 37% of young people aged 25 to 34 with higher education occupying positions below their educational level. In addition, it notes that around a third of those entering the labor market for the first time "do so in a job for which they are overeducated".
Regarding early school leaving, the study notes that it has declined "significantly", although it remains "among the highest" in the EU and affects young men "disproportionately".
As for the outward emigration of young people born in Spain, the analysis concludes that it is "moderate" in absolute terms (in 2024, 14,214 people aged 16 to 24 and 18,434 aged 25 to 34), but "markedly selective" by qualification level. Nearly a third of those who leave aged between 25 and 34 have university studies and almost a fifth hold a master's degree or doctorate.
As a conclusion, Funcas proposes among its recommendations "a significant expansion of the public stock of affordable rental housing", the deployment of differentiated active employment policies and transformations in the productive model toward activities with greater knowledge intensity.