Spain’s housing affordability crisis is deepening, with property prices rising 84.6 per cent between 2015 and 2025, compared with average wage growth of just 27.85 per cent between 2015 and 2024, leaving an increasing number of working households struggling to buy or rent a home.
The figures, reported by Euronews and drawn from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), highlight a widening divide between property values and household incomes, with the latest data suggesting that affordability pressures are continuing to intensify rather than ease.
According to the INE, Spanish house prices rose another 12.2 per cent in the year to June 2026, including a 12.9 per cent increase in established home values and a 7.4 per cent rise in new housing prices.
Over the same period, wage increases were running at approximately 3 to 4 per cent, according to figures cited by Spain’s Ministry of Labour.
The growing disparity is creating significant challenges for first-home buyers, particularly those without access to family wealth, while placing additional pressure on renters who are finding it increasingly difficult to save a deposit.
Research by property portal Fotocasa and employment platform InfoJobs, reported by Euronews in June, found that buying an average 80-square-metre second-hand home in Spain required the equivalent of 8.4 years of gross salary in 2025, compared with 7.1 years just 12 months earlier.
Affordability was particularly stretched in Madrid and the Balearic Islands, where buyers needed the equivalent of approximately 15 years of gross salary to purchase a home.
The study also found that second-hand asking prices increased 20.5 per cent during 2025, while advertised wages rose by just 1 per cent, further widening the gap between earnings and the cost of home ownership.
The rental market is proving equally challenging, with the Bank of Spain reporting that four in ten renting households face an excessive housing cost burden, spending more than 40 per cent of their income on rent.
An Oxfam Intermón study, released last week and reported by Euronews, found that approximately 770,000 employed people were living in poverty after accounting for housing costs.
Among workers renting at market rates, 34.08 per cent fell below the poverty threshold after paying rent, compared with 10.22 per cent of those paying a mortgage and 7.95 per cent of outright homeowners.
The findings point to a housing market in which employment and a regular income are increasingly insufficient to secure financial stability, particularly for younger households and those without existing property assets.
The affordability crisis is also being compounded by a significant shortage of housing supply.
According to the Bank of Spain, the country accumulated an estimated shortfall of approximately 750,000 homes between 2021 and 2025, as population growth and household formation continued to outpace new construction.
In 2025 alone, approximately 225,000 new households were formed, while just 92,000 homes were completed, leaving a substantial gap between housing demand and the number of properties entering the market.
A separate Reuters Breakingviews analysis found that Spain built fewer than 400,000 homes between 2021 and 2025 while absorbing approximately 1.9 million migrants, placing further pressure on an already constrained housing market.
The analysis identified rising construction costs, tighter lending conditions and restrictive planning regulations as major barriers to development, noting that returns on equity in Spain’s construction sector had fallen from around 10 per cent before the global financial crisis to approximately 4 per cent in 2024.
Construction costs were also reported to be around 50 per cent higher than in 2008, making it increasingly difficult for developers to deliver new housing at prices buyers can afford.
The widening affordability gap is becoming a significant political and economic issue, with Spanish trade unions calling for higher wages and greater government investment in affordable housing.
However, economists have warned that wage increases alone are unlikely to resolve the crisis without substantial improvements in housing supply, planning approvals and development feasibility.