The deterioration of access to housing in Spain is connected to speculation..

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The decrease in housing availability in Spain is due to the constant rise in prices, driven more by wholesale and non-resident demand, which is usually more speculative than retail demand for residential real estate. This is one of the main conclusions drawn in the latest issue of "Cuadernos de Información Económica" by Funcas, which states that the contrast between real estate sales transactions and mortgage agreements, where only four out of ten housing sales are made with a mortgage, indicates that a large portion of properties are purchased for investment purposes, further driving up prices and making access more difficult.

Furthermore, the authors of the study, Santiago Carbo and Francisco Rodriguez, note that the lack of land and the rising demand for housing are other reasons that increase the difficulties in accessing housing, along with inadequate long-term land policies and growing demand. This dynamic has worsened housing availability, especially after the financial crisis and the pandemic, when prices quickly rebounded, outpacing wage growth, according to the authors of the study. Factors such as "inadequate" long-term land policies and rising demand only exacerbate the problem, increasing inequality between homeowners and those who cannot afford to buy a home.

"The worsening housing availability intensifies inequality, as homeowners benefit while renters and families who cannot afford to buy a house suffer," they noted.

Support for property

According to the authors of the study, the solution lies in rethinking the approach of policymakers in housing policy towards ensuring inclusive access to quality housing, which includes supporting an effective rental market—by refraining from interventions that further drive up prices—and increasing the housing supply, including the creation of a broader public housing stock in many cases. In this context, they warned that the political measures taken to address mortgage affordability issues often boil down to credit subsidies and mortgage restructuring, strategies that "do not always lead to the expected results." "Often, government support measures ineffectively mitigate the decline in housing prices, and in some cases even contributed to the continuation of bubbles," they cautioned.

Increase in housing prices: accumulation of wealth

The authors Marina Asensio, Marina Garcia, and Daniel Manzano also point out that the increase in the value of assets, such as housing, allows for the accumulation of wealth that exceeds just net activity, where savings are "regularly" manifested. In the Spanish case, this effect is responsible for nearly three-quarters of the growth in household wealth. Furthermore, although there are other factors, it also largely explains the greater concentration of wealth, as shown by the highest percentiles of wealth distribution: the top 1% of wealthiest households owned 13.8% of wealth in 2002 and will reach 22% by 2020, according to EFF.

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