Renting is dividing the real estate market: growing numbers of multi-owners and homeless.

Spain has for decades been considered a country with a large number of homeowners. Today, however, this claim depends on the age group. Although older generations are still more owners than a few years ago, among the young, Spain is more a country of renters. Whereas in 2002 only three households out of ten run by people under 28 years old lived in rented accommodation, this percentage is now approaching 70%. A dramatic change as outlined in a report published Thursday by Future Policy Lab, a think tank outside political parties but with a progressive orientation that seeks "for the proposals of new generations to enter the public debate." In its analysis of the Spanish''s real estate market the five researchers who signed it draw attention to the "polarization of real estate". A gap that exists between old and young (or not so old), but which also exists between rich and poor. That's because those who rent and those who lease homes are the two extremes of the system in terms of both age and income.

These are the groups that have grown the most in Spain in recent times. Classifying households into four types (renters, freeholders, owners of free housing, owners of publicly assisted housing and owners of multiple properties who rent out at least one property), the study notes the unstoppable growth of the former.

This evolution in the number of families renting does not, however, call into question one of the most repeated aphorisms in real estate: that the lack of housing on the market is precisely why prices are rising. On the contrary, the report notes that "the general opinion in Spain today''is that the growth in demand for rental housing has outstripped the growth in supply'." "Combined with the remaining role of social housing," it adds, "this has led to a persistent crisis of affordable rental housing, particularly in urban areas. "