The average Spaniard has to devote the entire salary for 6 years to paying off the mortgage loan for their house bought in 2020. This is 2.5 months less than in 2019 (6 years and 2.5 months), according to the study "The relationship between salary and purchase of housing in 2020". It is based on the average prices for secondary housing from the Fotocasa real estate index and data on average salaries from job offers on the InfoJobs platform. In 2020, the prices for the sale of housing in Spain closed with an annual increase of 1.6% and amounted to 1,876 euros per sq. m. in December. This means that, taking into account the average salary in Spain recorded by InfoJobs, which will be 25,173 euros per year (2,098 euros per month) in 2020, Spaniards will have to devote their salary for 6 years (72 months) to paying the mortgage for a house of 80 square meters.
"It's always good news that the effort that Spaniards have to make to buy a house is decreasing, because it means that access to the real estate market is becoming more affordable. However, these figures show that we are still far from a sufficient level, and we probably still have some way to go. In any case, this is the first decline that we have recorded for two years, so this may be an indicator that we are moving towards a balance between salary and housing costs. Although this depends not only on reasonable housing prices, but also on the economic recovery and the improvement of working conditions, " comments Maria Matos, research Director and spokeswoman for Fotocasa.
Mónica Pérez, Director of Communications at InfoJobs, adds: "The increase in the average annual salary before taxes in 2020 (4.9%), as well as the minimum interprofessional salary (5.5%), stimulated a slight increase in prices for secondary housing (1.6%). However, the current crisis situation does not allow us to estimate the salary dynamics until the end of the year. The main priority is to restore the economic recovery and solve such problems as, for example, the return to activity of all employees on the ERTE (temporary employment regulation plan)."
13 of the 17 autonomous communities reduced the payment terms of a mortgage loan for secondary housing in 2020. In 8 of the 13 communities, salary increased by more than 5% compared to the previous year (2019), and the annual housing price decreased in 5 of them.