Leaving your parents’ or legal guardians’ home is a major decision, the definitive step into adulthood, the moment when you become responsible for your own life. Becoming independent is one of the most exciting moments of our lives, but also one of the most costly (and not only in emotional terms). Therefore, if you are thinking of leaving home, we want to help you understand how and at what price you can achieve your independence. One step at a time…
What should be taken into account when leaving home?
In Spain, from a legal standpoint, it is enough to be of legal age to be able to leave home without anyone’s permission. The law also allows minors between 16 and 18 to leave home, provided they have the consent of the adults exercising parental authority or by court order.
Although there are no legal obstacles to becoming independent at the age of 18, the truth is that, according to Eurostat, young people in Spain leave home at 29.5 years of age on average. And the reason for that, however attached one may be to family life, is mainly about money. More specifically, the cost of finding a place to live.
Do you want to know how much it costs to live in your own home? Get out the calculator and let’s start crunching the numbers.
The first challenge: finding a flat for young people where you can become independent.
When you are a teenager and you dream of becoming independent, you usually imagine yourself living in a flat like the ones you see in TV series; right in the heart of the city and with enough square metres to ride a bike inside the house. However, when it comes to the crunch, you have to weigh house prices against your income and you realise that things are often far different from what you thought they would be.
We don’t know what your financial situation is, but if we take into account that most people in Spain earn 1,320 euros net per month (according to INE data) and that if you are at the beginning of your career your salary will probably be lower, you will have to study your options very carefully when it comes to finding a house.
Let’s start with the most difficult option: buying a home. The price of a property depends on several factors: the area, the surface area, the age of the property, etc. We can only tell you that, on average, a property in Spain costs 179,887 euros. In other words, 136.2 of the monthly salaries mentioned above. To be able to afford such an outlay, you will normally have to take out a mortgage loan and the bank will ask you to meet certain requirements that are difficult for people starting out in their professional life (a permanent contract, a minimum level of income, etc.). In addition, mortgages generally only cover 80% of the price of the property, so you will need to have the remaining 20% available at the time of purchase. Complicated, isn’t it? Perhaps that is why 55% of Spaniards under 35 live in rented accommodation.
However, renting a property also involves fulfilling certain conditions. Landlords are entitled by law to require a deposit equivalent to a full month’s rent, but it is common for this amount to be increased in the contract and for a further monthly fee to be added as a commission for the estate agent. In addition, when renting a flat, you will usually be asked to guarantee your solvency by producing payslips, the income and expenditure history of your bank account and even a bank guarantee or a guarantor who will vouch for you in the event of non-payment.
If you add to all this the fact that the average rental price in big cities such as Madrid and Barcelona is around 800 euros, a typical option for people who have just become independent is to share a flat. This means that you will pay for your room and share the rest of the expenses, but also the living room, kitchen, bathrooms, housework, visits from your flatmates… In short, living with other people can be a fun experience, but your only private space is your room.
As you can see, getting your first home can be complicated, and both the price and the difficulty of finding accommodation increase with the size of the city where you want to live. If you’re thinking of moving to Madrid, you should read on.
Living independently in Madrid
Madrid has more than 5 million inhabitants and more than half a million businesses, making it one of the places many young people choose when they become independent, whether they are from Madrid or not. If you are in this case, the first thing you should know is that according to the website En Alquiler, the average price of a rented flat in the capital in 2022 is 1,735 euros per month. In the case of a single room, a study by the website pisos.com quotes 426 euros per month.
The price per square metre varies greatly from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, which means that in the centre and in the most emblematic areas of the city you will be paying more for a smaller space, and probably in a very old building. The good news is that the Autonomous Community of Madrid has one of the best public transport systems in the world and a road network that makes it easy and quick to get from one part of the city to another. That means you can live in a good place for less and get to the centre in a matter of minutes.
However, if you want to become independent, it is not all about renting or buying a house. There are flexible accommodation formulas such as Be Casa, where you can live in your own studio or 1 or 2-bedroom flat from 723 euros per month all inclusive, with no rental contract and no stipulations regarding the length of your stay. In other words, you can stay as long as you want, from days or weeks to several months with the possibility of extending your stay. Furthermore, at Be Casa you have much more than just a flat: communal areas with a pool, rooftop decks and terraces, sports facilities, a cafeteria, etc. You also have areas dedicated to work, with individual desks or teamwork facilities and meeting rooms (high-speed connectivity is available, of course). And for even more independence, you have a cleaning service, reception, security… they even pick up your packages. In short, this formula allows you to have all the privacy of a home together with the comforts of a hotel and services designed to make you feel at home from the very first day.
