This Property Day focused on “Youth and Property”, exploring the challenges, barriers, opportunities, and benefits of being a young property owner. The event, organised in partnership with our Spanish member, CCPU, was hosted by Urban Property Chamber of Barcelona on 21 October.
The event first provided a broad overview of young generations’ challenges to access property and to some extent housing at EU as well as Spanish and Catalan levels. Housing affordability has become a challenge in several EU countries, even if regional and local disparities exit. This was one of the outcomes of the European Commission DG Economic and Finance’s latest paper on access to housing in Europe. Together with Greece and Italy, Spain is one of the countries in Europe where young people, unable to buy or rent, live the longest with their parents. After the 2008/2009 crisis and its wave of foreclosures, younger Spanish generations are facing harder mortgage credit conditions making access to property a distant dream for many. These numbers are also the result of more than a decade of failing housing policy in the country as explained during the event.
The following panel discussion was the occasion to dig into more practical national and sector examples looking at the challenges, actions to tackle them, and the young generation’s expectations when it comes to buying a home, investing in the private rented sector, or finding accommodations in Spain, France, the UK or Norway. While the extent of the situation varies between these countries, many trends are common, demonstrating the importance of a sustainable, inclusive housing policy, but not excluding the importance of private ownership.
