Young people leaving home in Spain in 2026: why Spaniards move out at 30

A record low

Moving out of the parental home has become a long-distance race for young people in Spain. According to the 2025 review by the Emancipation Observatory (Observatorio de Emancipación) of the Consejo de la Juventud de España (CJE), published in May 2026, only 14.5% of people aged 16 to 29 live away from the family home. It is the lowest figure since the series began.

Put another way: around 85.5% of young people in that age group still live with their family. In absolute numbers, the report counts 1,070,119 young people living independently, around 48,500 fewer than a year earlier.

Age makes a big difference. Between 16 and 24, living independently is almost token, at 4.5%. In the 25-to-29 bracket it rises to 33.1%, which means that two out of three people in their late twenties, about to turn 30, are still living with their parents.

Thirty years old before leaving home: Spain compared with Europe

The European data confirm the delay. Eurostat published in September 2026 that the average age at which young people left the family home in the European Union was 26.3 in 2025. In Spain it was 30.2, almost four years later than the EU average.

The trend is upwards. A year earlier, with 2024 data, Eurostat put Spain at 30.0 and the EU average at 26.2. At the opposite end are the Nordic countries: Finland recorded an average age of 21.4 in 2025, while Croatia, at 31.5, was the country where young people left home latest.

Employment explains part of the gap. According to the Eurostat data reported in the European press, the employment rate for people aged 20 to 29 was 58.2% in Spain in 2025, compared with an EU average of 65.5%. With fewer young people working, and on lower salaries, the move to a home of their own gets postponed.

Source: Eurostat (2024 and 2025 data, published in September 2025 and September 2026, as reported by Eurostat News, Brussels Times, Eunews and The Star) and the CJE's Emancipation Observatory, 2025 review.

Rent swallows the salary

The big obstacle is the cost of housing. The Observatory calculates that average market rent was around €1,176 a month in 2025, while the average net salary of a young person was around €1,190 a month. The result is that renting a flat alone would mean spending 98.7% of their salary on rent.

The usual benchmark for a reasonable effort is that housing should not exceed 30% of income. Lawmakers use that threshold too: Ley 12/2023 por el derecho a la vivienda (Law 12/2023 on the right to housing) classifies an area as a zona tensionada (stressed housing market area) when the average cost of rent or mortgage, plus basic expenses and utilities, exceeds 30% of average household income. For an average young person, living alone means three times that level.

Salaries, moreover, are rising slowly. The CJE estimates that the average youth salary grew by 1.7% in 2025, far below the increase in rents. And the youth unemployment rate, although falling, remained at around 17%.

The cost of housing also drives up vulnerability. According to the report, the poverty risk among young people goes from 25.9% before housing costs are deducted to 43% afterwards. It is a very clear way of measuring how much rent weighs on the finances of anyone trying to take the step.

Sharing a flat, the most common way out

Given these figures, sharing a flat is no longer just a student phase but the most realistic way to become independent. According to the CJE, renting a room in a shared flat takes up 33.6% of a young person's average salary: still a high effort, but much closer to the 30% threshold.

The problem is that rooms have also become more expensive. The Observatory puts the median price of a room at around €400 a month and estimates an increase of close to 85% since 2022. Only one in five young people living independently, 19.7%, lives alone.

Data from the property portals point the same way. According to idealista's report for the first quarter of 2026, the average price of a room in Spain was €430, with Barcelona (€600) and Madrid (€587) at the top. There is, however, a positive note: the supply of rooms grew by 22% year on year and prices rose by only 2%. In Madrid, supply increased by 28% and the number of people interested per room fell by 18%.

• Average price of a room in Spain: €430 a month (idealista, first quarter of 2026).
• Barcelona: €600; Madrid: €587; Palma: €500; San Sebastián: €470.
• Supply of rooms: +22% year on year across Spain.
• Effort for an average young person: 33.6% of salary in a shared flat (CJE, 2025).

Buying, an even more distant goal

If renting is hard, buying seems out of reach for most. The Observatory puts the average price of an open-market home at around €223,000 and calculates that the down payment and initial costs come to around €66,900, an amount equivalent to several years' full salary for an average young person.

That entry barrier explains why prior savings, and not just the monthly mortgage payment, are the main filter. That is why many regions and the State Housing Plan itself have stepped up public aid and guarantees for young people buying their first home.

The Bono Alquiler Joven: from the 2022 model to the new plan

The Bono Alquiler Joven (youth rental allowance) was created by Real Decreto 42/2022 (Royal Decree 42/2022). It offered €250 a month for two years to under-35s with an income of up to three times the IPREM (Spain's public income benchmark index), and set a maximum rent of €600 per home (which could be raised to €900 in certain cases) or €300 per room. It is managed by the autonomous regions, except in the Basque Country and Navarre.

The picture changed in April 2026. Real Decreto 326/2026 of 22 April, which regulates the Plan Estatal de Vivienda 2026-2030 (State Housing Plan 2026-2030), was published in the BOE (Spain's Official State Gazette) on 23 April and came into force the following day. Among its programmes, it includes specific rental aid for young people for up to four years to help them become independent.

According to the summary of the plan published by idealista and other media after its approval, the aid for under-35s rises to up to €300 a month for renting a whole home and up to €200 for renting a room. It also cannot exceed 60% of the rent, and the rent must not be more than €1,000 per home or €600 per room, with possible exceptions in stressed market areas.

Source: Real Decreto 42/2022 (BOE 19/01/2022); Real Decreto 326/2026 (BOE 23/04/2026); summaries by idealista (21/04/2026), El Español (25/04/2026) and INEAF. The exact conditions depend on each regional call for applications.

There are two important caveats. The first is that the autonomous regions are the ones that open and decide on the applications, so deadlines, income thresholds and documents vary from one region to another. Some guides put the general income limit at five times the IPREM, but it is worth checking the call for applications in each region. The second is that those who were receiving the previous allowance will have to apply again when their region opens the new call.

For a young person renting a room at €430, aid of €200 would bring their outlay down to €230 a month. With a flat at €900, the €300 cap would leave the effective rent at €600. These are meaningful reliefs, although on their own they do not close the gap between salaries and prices.

What young people who want to move out can do today

• Work out the real effort: add up rent, utilities and fixed costs and compare them with 30% of net income.
• Consider a shared flat as a first step: it brings the effort down to about a third of the average salary.
• Keep an eye on the regional calls for the new youth aid and get the contract, empadronamiento (registration at the town hall) and proof of income ready in advance.
• Prepare a complete, well-organised tenant profile: in a market with high demand, speed and clarity count.
• Find out about the public guarantees and backing for young people included in the new State Plan.

A structural problem

The figures point to a problem that cannot be explained by a single cause. The shortage of affordable rental housing, low starting salaries and temporary employment combine to delay the independence of an entire generation. The result is an age of leaving home that in Spain is now over 30, compared with an average of 26 in Europe.

At Llavely we work to make the search less exhausting: tenants create a verified profile once and it is verified landlords who invite them to see the property, without having to compete by sending dozens of messages.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Rent consumes 98.7% of young people's salaries in single flats and over 33% in shared ones (Euronews, 22/05/2026, in Spanish)
2. The housing crisis drags youth emancipation to its worst figure on record (El Salto, May 2026, in Spanish)
3. Only 14.5% of Spanish under-30s can move out, a historic low (The Corner, May 2026)
4. Emancipation: the rent problem, 98% of young people's salaries (Brains RE News, 2026, in Spanish)
5. Only one in four young people with a job can move out (Nació Digital, May 2026, in Catalan)
6. Observatorio de Emancipación (Emancipation Observatory) (Consejo de la Juventud de España, Spanish Youth Council)
7. When do young people in the EU leave home? (Eurostat News, 23/09/2025)
8. Young adults in the EU delaying independence as home-leaving age climbs further (Brussels Times, 15/09/2026)
9. Eurostat: young Italians slowest to leave the parental home (Eunews, 15/09/2026)
10. Jobs, housing shape when young Europeans leave home (The Star, 30/09/2026)
11. Supply of rooms grows 22% and prices rise only 2% in the first quarter (idealista, 09/04/2026, in Spanish)
12. Real Decreto 326/2026 (Royal Decree 326/2026) regulating the Plan Estatal de Vivienda 2026-2030 (State Housing Plan) (BOE, 23/04/2026)
13. Real Decreto 42/2022 (Royal Decree 42/2022), Bono Alquiler Joven and State Plan 2022-2025 (Economist & Jurist, summary of the BOE of 19/01/2022, in Spanish)
14. New Housing Plan approved: more aid for renting and renovation (idealista, 21/04/2026, in Spanish)
15. It's official: aid of up to €300 a month for young people who rent (El Español, 25/04/2026, in Spanish)
16. Bono Alquiler Joven 2026: requirements, amount and how to apply (INEAF, in Spanish)
17. Rent limits: stressed-area criteria under Law 12/2023 (Pérez-Llorca, 19/03/2024, in Spanish)