'Having money is not enough': Why a job no longer guarantees access to housing in Spain

In Spain, having a job no longer guarantees being able to access housing. The increase in property and rental prices in recent years, far outpacing wage growth, makes it difficult both to pay a mortgage and to save up enough for a deposit. This is a gap that particularly – though not exclusively – affects young people and low- and middle-income households and that, in recent weeks, has placed access to housing at the centre of social and political debate, to the point that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez opted to bring forward the general election after failing to secure approval in Congress for a set of urgent measures aimed at addressing the discontent felt on the streets.

"The problem is essentially structural," says Rafael Pampillón, professor of Applied Economics at San Pablo-CEU University in Madrid, who acknowledges that the current gap between wages and the high cost of rents and mortgages "makes it harder to access housing" and emphasises that "having money for the deposit is not enough". According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), housing prices rose by 84. 6% between 2015 and 2025, while average annual gross wages increased by 27.

85% between 2015 and 2024, reaching 29,540 euros. Wages agreed in collective bargaining went up by around 27% over the same period. The gap persists today.

Housing prices climbed 12. 2% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, compared with average wage increases of between 3% and 4%, according to figures cited by the Ministry of Labour. Housing is becoming more expensive at a pace that earnings from work cannot keep up with.

A recent study by Oxfam Intermón, presented last week, warns that housing costs have pushed the in-work poverty rate up to 15. 49%, affecting around 770,000 people across the country. According to the report, one in three working people who rent at market prices falls into poverty after paying the rent.

The rate stands at 34. 08%, compared with 10. 22% among those paying a mortgage and 7.

95% among those who own their home outright. "Evictions are the most extreme face of the housing crisis, but not the only one," argues Oxfam Intermón's head of housing, employment and social policies, Alejandro García-Gil. "There is another, less visible reality: people who are working and just about manage to pay for their home every month, but who, once they have done so, do not have enough income left to sustain a decent standard of living.

"Rent, a cost that makes buying harderThe problem is not limited to purchase prices. According to the latest annual report from the Bank of Spain, four in ten households living in rented accommodation face an excessive financial burden, spending more than 40% of their income on rent. In major cities and areas most exposed to tourism, pressure on prices further aggravates these difficulties.