One of the most significant financial investments in a person's life is buying a house. It requires a lot of time, effort, knowledge and, of course, savings. The latter, even with affordable loans, will require many years of accumulation.
According to a study by the InfoJobs platform and the real estate price index from the Fotocasa portal, in 2022 the average period required to accumulate money for mortgage payments was 6.7 years or 81 months.
In 2021, the average term was 6.2 years or 75 months. This is even less than in 2012 with a period of 6.4 years or 77 months. This difference is largely due to historically low interest rates on loans.
Housing prices in Spain by the end of 2022 showed an annual growth of 7.5%, 2,051 euros per square meter. The average gross salary for the same period was 24,395 euros, that is, 2,033 euros per month, if divided into 12 monthly payments on a standard mortgage loan.
In other words, the average Spaniard would need 6.7 years of uninterrupted monthly loan payments for an apartment with an area of 80 square meters if he could not spend a penny of his monthly salary.
Maria Matos, a representative of Fotocasa, points out that in 2022 the market is faced with a situation where buyers have to give a record share of their monthly salary for mortgage payments. And loans have only become more expensive despite the fact that wages remain stable and are rarely indexed.
In 2022, the average salary, if we rely on InfoJobs data, reached 24,395 euros, which turned out to be even lower than it was in 2021 - a decrease of 0.7% in annual terms. Purchasing power, adjusted for inflation, decreased by 6.4%.
In 13 autonomous communities of Spain, residents will need to buy full wages continuously for 11.3 years today, if we take into account the Balearic Islands. The bar can be lowered to 10.4 years, if you look at Madrid.
At the same time, in the same Balearic Islands, the increase in prices for residential real estate for the year amounted to 13.8% at the end of 2022. The square meter has reached the mark of 3,290 euros. The average salary, at the same time, stopped at the level of 23,292 euros, which is lower than the national average.