Young people in the Canary Islands need to spend 126.5 per cent of their salary on rent to live on their own, according to the ‚Observatorio de Emancipación 2025‘ report, presented on Wednesday by the Spanish Youth Council.
The report puts the rate of young people leaving home in the Canary Islands (aged 16 to 29) at 15.4 per cent, one of the lowest in the historical series, and attributes this situation mainly to the rising cost of housing, both to rent and to buy.
Manuel Mejías, the study’s researcher and technician, explained at a press conference that the average rent on the islands reached 1,224 euros per month in 2025, an 8 per cent increase on the previous year, whilst real wages for young people have risen by barely 6 per cent since 2008.
Canary Islands: Owning a flat is beyond the means of young people
«A young person would have to spend 126.5 per cent of their salary if they want to rent a flat on their own. In other words, their salary isn’t enough; they have to rely on family support, if they have it, or other means,» said Mejías.
He also pointed out that «if a young person from the Canary Islands wants to buy their own home, they will have to spend around 85 per cent of their salary on the mortgage repayment» and will need to set aside 5.5 years‘ worth of their full salary for the deposit.
Shared accommodation is becoming significantly more common amongst young tenants
The study also indicates that almost half of young people in the Canary Islands (46.6 per cent) who live in rented accommodation share a flat, and that this arrangement has increased by 13.3 percentage points compared with 2024.
Mejías explained that women are the ones who leave home first and that young people with higher education are in a «better starting position», although this tends to be delayed.
Furthermore, young people who have already entered the labour market, whether in work or unemployed, are more likely to have left their parents‘ home (26.5 per cent) than those who are economically inactive, the majority of whom are in education, and whose rate of leaving the parental home in 2025 stood at 3.8 per cent.
However, he has warned that «employment today does not provide the same level of protection as it did in previous decades; 25.6 per cent of young people in the Canary Islands who are in work are at risk of poverty or social exclusion».
The researcher also highlighted that 28.2 per cent of young people who own their own home purchased it without a mortgage, compared with 13.1 per cent who took out a mortgage, whilst 24.2 per cent acquired it through a free transfer.
He also pointed out that without social benefits, such as education, housing benefit, unemployment benefit, etc., the poverty rate amongst young people living independently, which currently stands at 25.8 per cent on the islands, would rise to 39.7 per cent.
Rent as a factor in impoverishment
The chair of the Spanish Youth Council, Sara Villodre, has warned that the situation in the Canary Islands mirrors a nationwide trend characterised by limited access to housing.
According to the report, the rate of young people leaving their parents‘ home in Spain stood at 14.5 per cent in 2025, the lowest level since these reports began to be compiled in 2006.
«Rent is emerging as a major factor in the impoverishment of many young people and, in fact, the risk of poverty among young people rises from 25.9 per cent to 43 per cent after they have paid their rent,» said Villodre.
Canary Islands Youth Council calls for a binding housing policy
The chair of the Canary Islands Youth Council, Eliana Parrilla, has called on public authorities to introduce housing policies «with a budget, a timetable and verifiable results» and has criticised the fact that current rent subsidies «often arrive too late and are inadequate».
«We cannot continue to respond to structural problems with measures that are purely temporary,» said Parrilla, adding that «we do not need any more institutional or political announcements, nor do we want this to be nothing more than headlines».
This year, the Emancipation Observatory has introduced a methodological change by replacing the Labour Force Survey (EPA), on which it had previously relied, with the annual Living Conditions Survey (ECV), with a view to improving the comparability and analysis of young people’s social conditions.
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