adminMADRID. – Spaniards aged 18-35 should be offered a monthly bonus to help them leave their parents’ home and pay rent, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has proposed.
The €250 (US$290) benefit would be given for up to two years, and is part of a broader housing package.
A draft rental law would also introduce rental caps for big property owners, particularly in areas where rent has soared in recent years.
Spain has among Europe’s highest rates of property ownership.
But that also means that fewer than one in four homes are available for rent. And in some areas, such as the big cities of Madrid and Barcelona, rents have been on the rise while incomes have fallen by over 7 percent in just one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Housing is a grave problem in our country,” Sánchez said.
Under the prime minister’s plans, the youth bonus will be passed on by Spain’s autonomous regional authorities to under-35s who earn less than €23 725 a year.
They would decide whether it would be handed out per person or per rented home.
The intention is to enable more young people to move out of their parents’ homes.
Spaniards leave their family home at the age of 30, nearly four years later than the EU average, according to Eurostat figures.
And since the peak of Spain’s last economic boom in 2007, the proportion of 16- to 29-year-olds who have left home has been dropping steadily, from 26 percent to 16 percent last year. – BBCWorld
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