Renting will become an anchor in the lives of thousands of people who only survive on their salary and who also do not see a possible inheritance as a solution. This is clear from the report carried out by IDRA, the Barcelona Urban Research Institute, in which the data clarifies this increasingly entrenched perception among the most disadvantaged classes. Its results destroy this hope, transformed into a myth by the data, according to which many people would become property owners after receiving an inheritance.
“The dynamics of the rental market have made it a mechanism for transferring income between the tenant population and the rentier population which accumulates surplus properties”, summarizes the report entitled “From owners to tenants”. Report on growing inequalities in access to property.
The overall picture is not rosy for people with fewer resources. Housing, converted almost exclusively into a market good, is configured as a vector of social inequality, believe IDRA experts. In fact, more and more people have no choice but to opt for rental. Renters already represent 53% of households between 16 and 29 years old and 32% of households between 30 and 44 years old.
The situation worsens if we look to the future: 70% of tenants in Madrid and Barcelona do not expect to inherit a home that would allow them to be owners. Of those who do so, 80% will have to share this inheritance.
We will only have to wait a few years to observe the generational change that the document presented by IDRA foresees. Living on rent will be a lasting condition that will likely last into old age for the vast majority of renters. If it is already common to wait for grandparents to die to be able to live in their house as the only option, the passage of years will not even give this opportunity to children who still live in rentals.
Inheriting no longer means stopping living as a tenant
Evaluated by age groups, it appears that the older you are, the lower the hope of an inheritance that will help you get out of rent. Regardless, six out of 10 tenants under 35 do not plan to do so. “The facts disprove the myth that most young people will sooner or later inherit housing and stop renting,” say the Barcelona Institute.
The situation is aggravated with migrants, for whom the expectation of inheritance is reduced to two people in ten who currently live in rented accommodation. In this sense, the population with the greatest hope of inheritance are Spaniards between 16 and 34 years old, and those with the least hope, after people over 65 years old, are foreigners between 35 and 64 years old, according to data collected in Madrid. and Barcelona.
However, 30% of tenants hope to be able to inherit, but that does not mean reaching the light at the end of this tunnel eternalized by speculation and rentism, according to tenants’ unions. Within the limit of this percentage, eight people out of ten will have to share the inheritance. In addition, the economic value and utility of the housing that will be inherited do not necessarily correspond to the needs of the tenant, maintains IDRA.
In the case of Madrid, half of the homes to be inherited are located outside an urban center, which reduces their usefulness, since they cannot meet their current residential needs, nor their economic value. In Barcelona, 40.7% of homes to be inherited have a value below or considerably below the average price of a 60 square meter apartment, which reaches 250,020 euros, the report highlights. This is how they condense the data: “All this places us in a scenario in which the majority of tenants who will inherit do not have the guarantee of access to housing which they own. »
On the other hand, the expectation of inheritance influences the expectation of purchase. The purchasing capacity of the population who will not inherit properties is very limited: only 24.8% of Madrid tenants who will not inherit hope to buy a house. The rest is shared between uncertainty (31.9%) and the total absence of expectation of purchase (43.3%).
Artificially inflated demand
IDRA also studied the reality of the home buying and selling market, which it describes as “inaccessible and kidnapped.” “Since 2021, after the pandemic and the measures taken, we have witnessed a sharp increase in purchase and sale prices, reaching figures per square meter comparable to or higher than those of the 2007 bubble,” they emphasize. In addition, in many regions, tenants who wish to access their first home through purchase must face competition from buyers who are already owners and have very high assets.
The data support these conclusions. The study indicates that in 2023 and 2024, 56% of purchases were made in cash, without a mortgage; 15% were carried out by non-resident foreigners; and that between 2008 and 2020, almost half of the homes purchased came from companies with more than eight properties. “All of this reflects the fact that homeownership is increasingly concentrated in the hands of those who already own property. Over the last decade, the number of large owners, those who own more than ten homes to their credit, has increased by 20%,” they elaborate.
From the point of view of these experts, “demand is artificially inflated by actors who do not need housing, which contributes to increasing prices for those who need it to live”. This means that seven out of ten renters don’t even know if they will be able to buy a home at some point in their lives.
“These data confirm that the rental market is a key source of inequality, which generates a significant social gap,” they say from IDRA. The study center also defends that “the rental market functions as a gigantic transfer mechanism from the less well-off population to the richest sectors”. Thus, Spain is at the top of the countries where housing is the greatest source of wealth with 64.2%, above the European Union average, established at 58%.
Objective: reduce inequalities
The public policy recommendations put forward by IDRA are closely linked to reducing inequalities between homeowners and non-owners. It is for this reason that they are committed to increasing the supply of long-term residential rentals at a regulated price, leaving room for all houses that do not fulfill their residential function. Likewise, they emphasize that fiscal measures would be necessary to reduce inequalities and guarantee access to housing, as well as measures to prevent the accumulation of housing in a few hands.
Finally, the institute analyzes the current solutions promoted by both the central government and regional executives, described as “insufficient and ineffective”. Without going any further, they conclude that the policies proposed so far as a solution to the problem of access to housing for generations without property are a way of “transferring public resources to owners and banks”.
