DREAM / The Prime Minister resigns and wakes up under the Parisian bridge!

 Kliko këtu për të tjera
Voxpress:

Why young Spanish people are abandoning cities for the countryside

2026-08-27 23:09:12Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Why young Spanish people are abandoning cities for the countryside
The housing crisis in Spain

13% of people looking to buy a home plan to move to areas with fewer than 10,000 residents. They are dominated by young people around 35 years old, with average incomes, who are seeing rural areas of Spain as a way out of a housing market that has become unaffordable.

Spain has been facing a deepening housing crisis for years, which is already changing the way young people think about their future.

For most people under 40, buying an apartment in Madrid, Barcelona or Malaga has become almost impossible. Renting is no longer an affordable option either. Young people who leave their parents' house to live on their own spend an average of 98.7% of their salary on housing.

The consequences are obvious. Only 14.5% of young people aged 16-29 have managed to live independently from their family, while the average age of leaving home has increased to 30, compared to 26 in the European Union.

According to the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE), in 2025, 44.3% of people aged 26-34 continued to live in the family home.

The previous generation could buy an apartment, a car, and in some cases even a second home with an average salary. For many young people today, this has become an almost unattainable prospect.

The housing shortage and high demand have further pushed up prices. According to Bankinter, sales prices have increased by 14.7% over the past year, while rents have increased by 10.9%. At the same time, salaries for people under 35 have seen very little growth in real terms.

Adding to the financial pressure is the quality of life in big cities, where high population density, pollution, and the pace of life are pushing some young people to seek quieter and more affordable alternatives.

For this reason, more and more of them are looking towards villages and towns that have lost residents over the past decades, where buying a home has not yet become an unattainable luxury.

The village is turning into an alternative

In Spain, it has long been a tradition for families to return to the countryside during the summer.

Many children had a village where they went on vacation, and those who didn't often traveled with friends to their grandparents' hometowns. For them, the village was associated with days away from the hustle and bustle of the city, swimming in the river, playing games, and spending time with cousins.

Those children are now adults and are facing a reality where buying a home in a big city requires an increasingly greater financial effort.

As a result, a movement is emerging in the opposite direction to that of their parents and grandparents: young people are turning their eyes to small municipalities, where a house can still be purchased at an affordable price.

A portion of the generation that would normally be in the phase of purchasing their first apartment in the city is now looking for other opportunities.

According to a study by Fotocasa Research, conducted in the first half of 2026, 13% of people looking for a home in Spain plan to move in the coming months to a municipality with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.

It is not mainly about retirees looking for peace, but about young people of active working age.

The profile emerging from the study is clear: people who are facing increasingly high housing costs are on average 35 years old, have a monthly income of 1,000 to 3,000 euros and, in many cases, continue to live with their parents.

The majority come from Catalonia (22%), Andalusia (19%) and Madrid (18%). But another element is even more significant: the majority do not currently live in the largest capitals. Around 44% reside in municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants that are not provincial capitals.

So, many of them are already far from the larger cities and are now ready to take another step towards smaller areas.

A generational change, not a passing fad

"The traditional image of the return of the population to rural areas is changing. Today, those who want to settle in a village are mainly young, of working age and with a life project yet to be built," said María Matos, research director and spokesperson for Fotocasa.

According to her, the trend is turning rural areas into a real alternative for housing. But for this to translate into a sustainable population recovery, more jobs, services, good internet connectivity and infrastructure are needed to convince people not only to move, but also to stay.

The age of those interested also reinforces the trend. Young people aged 18-24 make up 23% of those planning to move to rural areas, while the 25-34 age group accounts for 38%.

These are the age groups that would traditionally be looking for the first apartment in the city. Today, some of them are giving up on this opportunity.

Among those planning to move, 31% live with their partner and children, while 30% continue to live with their parents. This makes it clear that for many of them, moving is not only related to the desire for a different lifestyle, but also to the difficulty of securing suitable housing in the city.

"Empty Spain" as a way out

What has been considered one of Spain's problems for decades – the exodus of residents from the countryside and the migration of young people to the cities – is paradoxically turning into an opportunity.

In many villages and towns, there is still cheap housing at significantly lower prices than in urban centers.

But the problem is that these very areas have been losing population for years and often do not offer stable jobs, quality health services, schools, fast internet, or sufficient public transportation.

This remains the main condition that must change if the displacement of young people to rural areas is to move from a temporary trend to a real alternative to the housing crisis.

For now, the numbers speak of a generation that is willing to try. A generation hit by successive crises, that does not seek luxury, but the opportunity to live independently, to have their own home, and to build the future.

In the Spain of 2026, for many young people, this is looking more feasible in a village in Teruel or Cuenca than in a neighborhood in Madrid, Barcelona or other large cities.


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

Video

SHIKO KANALIN NE YOUTUBE
×