Mediterranean Youth Face Housing Crisis, Study Reveals

Young people "in southern Europe and, in general, in the Mediterranean arc", born between 1980 and 2005, have difficulty accessing housing, the study reveals, analyzing the situation in Morocco, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Lebanon, Tunisia and Jordan. Unemployed and with limited resources, these young people aged 18 to 34 often need the support of their relatives to buy a home. In Spain, 26.5% of young people under 35 still live with their parents, a rate higher than the 23% in Portugal, but lower than the 29.5% in Italy or the nearly 50% in Tunisia, the study notes.

"In Spain, only 30% of young people consider themselves able to cope with economic emergencies, while 40% have difficulty saving in the short term," the study indicates, specifying that few young people with an average age of 25.3 manage to acquire housing. And the trend is unlikely to reverse in the next two years. Most of the young people surveyed do not see themselves becoming homeowners within this timeframe. "In Spain, 39% believe that the possibility of becoming independent in the next two years is low or very low, while 31% believe that the probability is high or very high," the document states.

In the long term, prospects seem more encouraging. "Extending the horizon to five years, more than half of the young people (a little over 50%) believe that it is likely that they will be emancipated," the study notes. The Esade think tank and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, authors of the study, have made proposals to address this problem. First, they call on the authorities to invest more in housing. "Governments should allocate larger budgets to housing development. By directly increasing the supply of social housing, especially for low- and middle-income households, availability can be improved and pressure on supply reduced," they argue.

The authors also call for offering tax incentives to the private sector to build affordable housing. "Strengthening public-private partnerships can lead to larger housing projects that serve a wider audience. Establishing clear frameworks for these partnerships, ensuring transparency and mutual benefits, can result in a significant increase in housing supply," they insist, urging political classes and societies as a whole to join hands to meet these challenges, as "young people represent a country’s future".