Spain’s housing crisis is increasingly affecting people who would once have been considered financially secure. Having a stable job may cover monthly expenses, yet for many workers it is no longer enough to rent comfortably, save for a deposit or enter the property market.

The problem is especially visible among younger adults, but it is spreading across middle-income households as housing costs continue to rise much faster than earnings.

Home Prices Have Pulled Away

Between 2015 and 2025, housing prices in Spain increased by 84.6%. Average annual gross wages, by comparison, rose by just 27.85% between 2015 and 2024, reaching about €29,540.

The imbalance has continued in 2026. Property prices climbed by 12.2% year on year in the second quarter, while average wage increases remained closer to 3–4%.

This means that even people receiving regular pay rises may be losing ground when it comes to housing.

Economist Rafael Pampillón has described the situation as fundamentally structural, arguing that the widening gap between salaries and property costs cannot be resolved simply by helping buyers find enough money for an initial deposit.

Rent Makes Saving Harder

Renters face a particularly difficult cycle.

Around four in ten renting households spend more than 40% of their income on housing. Once such a large share of monthly earnings has disappeared, building savings for a future purchase becomes extremely difficult.

A property costing around €200,000 may require approximately €60,000 upfront once the deposit and associated buying costs are included.

In more expensive regions, the barrier is even higher. For a typical 90-square-metre property, buyers may need more than €129,000 in savings in Madrid and around €144,000 in the Balearic Islands.

Employment No Longer Guarantees Security

The housing squeeze is also changing the relationship between work and poverty.

Recent estimates suggest that housing costs have pushed the in-work poverty rate among affected workers to around 15.5%, representing roughly 770,000 people.

The situation is particularly severe for those renting at market prices. Around one in three employed renters falls below the poverty threshold after paying for housing.

Housing specialist Alejandro García-Gil has warned that eviction is only the most visible part of the crisis. He argues that many employed people technically manage to keep paying for their homes but are left without enough income afterward to maintain a decent standard of living.

Family Wealth Changes The Odds

As saving becomes harder, parental support increasingly influences who can buy.

Two people with similar salaries may face completely different futures if one can rely on family savings for a deposit while the other must build the entire amount alone.

This is particularly important for younger adults. In some expensive regions, a person buying alone could need more than a decade of disciplined saving before accumulating enough for the initial costs of a home.

The result is a housing divide based not only on income, but also on inherited resources.

Spain Needs More Homes

Higher salaries could ease some pressure, but experts increasingly point to housing supply as the larger problem.

Between 2021 and 2025, Spain accumulated an estimated housing shortage of around 750,000 homes. In 2025 alone, approximately 225,000 new households were created while only around 92,000 homes were completed.

That imbalance keeps pressure on both purchase prices and rents.

Spain’s housing challenge is therefore no longer simply about whether people have jobs. The deeper question is whether ordinary earnings can still provide access to a stable home. Until housing supply begins to catch up with demand, employment alone may no longer provide the security it once promised.