The youth in Portugal are more pessimistic about homeownership than their counterparts in Spain, with only 33% believing they will be able to purchase a home, according to a Century 21 study released on Friday.
A statement clarifies that “Century 21 Portugal and Century 21 Spain presented the results of two complementary studies on the challenges faced by young people in the Iberian housing market.”
The findings highlight that “access to housing remains a major barrier to the autonomy of young people in both countries, primarily due to high property prices, insufficient income, and a lack of affordable housing.”
In Portugal, “only one in three young people believes they will be able to buy a home in the coming years.”
In Spain, “nearly half of young adults aged 20 to 40 estimate they will need five to fifteen years to achieve this, with 31% of those aged 36 to 40 believing they will never succeed.”
“These data reveal that young people’s reality is marked by deep generational inequalities. The desire to leave home is strong, but the system is not meeting their needs. Instead of an emancipated generation, we have a delayed one,” stated Ricardo Sousa, CEO of Century 21 Portugal and Spain.
The data indicate that “the Iberian situation reveals structural obstacles that deeply affect the life path of the new generation.”
“In Portugal, the main obstacles are high prices (43%) and low incomes (30%), while in Spain these factors are even more pronounced: 80% of young people identify housing costs as the main barrier, followed by job instability (65%) and lack of savings (54%).”
Is housing still a deferred dream?
Both in Portugal and Spain, there is a widespread desire for independence, according to the study:
“In Portugal, almost 65% of non-independent young people plan to emancipate themselves in the next two years, and 45% give a high score (10 out of 10) to their desire to leave their parents’ house.”
In the neighboring country, 37% of young people would like to live alone but opt to share accommodation with a partner (46%) or friends (20%) for financial reasons.
“Despite this, most young people do not believe that public support is effective: only 24% of Portuguese young people consider state incentives sufficient, and 65% of Spanish young people claim that support rarely materializes.”
However, “the Iberian youth are willing to make sacrifices,” as “in Portugal, 89% of young people are prepared to give up travel, leisure, and shopping to achieve independence—reflecting what they believe their parents also did.”
“In Spain, although there is this awareness, 58% of young people are unwilling to give up personal comforts such as mobile phone purchases, streaming platforms, or cultural events, even knowing it would facilitate emancipation.”
