When & quot; the grandmother’s floor & quot; It is the only way out to become independent: & quot; young people can only emancipate from Carambola & quot;

“We always say that if we had not had this opportunity it would have been impossible to go to live together. We were not willing to spend a money on a rent.” This is what Sonia, a 24 -year -old Barcelona nurse. The luck factor has been what has pushed themto her and her partner, to make the decision to emancipate. “The floor is from my boyfriend’s grandmother,” he explains, “I was rented to three students.” They were presented with this option after a year of search.

“It is true that every time you enter an application to see the offer you disappoint more, it seemed impossible,” he says. His boyfriend, 25, lived in Mallorca And when he returned they started looking for a flat in Barcelona. Without obsessing, “because obviously the situation is what is.” They were looking for applications and platforms and found it very difficult to find a home in conditions. “Maybe it would be possible but then living a totally precarious life,” she says.

Another similar case is that of Oona, a 26 -year -old journalist, independent about two years ago. Her grandmother died in April 2023 and at that time she lived with her parents. His mother put the apartment for rent and leased it to some tenants. It was in December of that same year when he left home and entered an apartment in the Barcelona neighborhood of Gràcia, which he shared with three other people. “What made me out of there was the noise of the street, I couldn’t sleep, and I asked my mother if I could let myself live on my grandmother’s floor.”

Now, On his grandmother’s floor, he can live alone. Although to rent alone, a young person should allocate more than 100% of their current net salary, according to the Emancipation Observatory of the Youth Council of Spain. And the rental price has broken the record: 1,072 euros per month.

Miquel Taverna

In Catalonia, as in many other areas of Spain, most young people cannot emancipate until approximately 30 years. “There are two key elements that explain it: low salaries and job instability and very high rental and purchase prices,” explains Jordi Mir, professor of humanities at the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and the Department of Political Science of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).

“There are two key elements that explain it: low salaries and job instability and very high rental and purchase prices”

Mir, which is also a philosopher, ensures that measures are needed to prevent “the will to maximize criminal benefits in this way.” There are already countries where it is not allowed to buy housing if it is not to live, something that “can limit the speculative purchase,” he concludes.

Ask the tenants to leave the family floor

When the owner needs the home for oneself or for a direct relative, he can ask tenants to leave the property. The Urban Lease Law (LAU) It establishes two months for tenants to look for a new floor. This right applies once the first year of contract has elapsed. “Three months passed so they could move,” says Ona. “It was a mess because a season I returned to my parents’ house and I had the furniture in a storage room.”

“The problem is that this is not the general norm, young people can emancipate ourselves from Carambola,” explains Edu, a 25 -year -old political scientist. Resident in La Garriga, says that in the municipality -located about 35 kilometers from Barcelona – The offer does not drop from 1,000 euros “For a floor that is a cage.” “I had the enormous luck of getting one of the floors that were rented to 450 euros per month,” he appreciates.

His cousin wanted to move with her partner to a floor for two, in the same town, until they found him. “I had already told him that if he left one day he told me, I knew it was a unique opportunity.” Edu was looking at different options before running into fortune, and now he can live only for an affordable price. “What I pay for an apartment in La Garriga is what a person pays for a room in Barcelona.”

Laia, the 25 -year -old Guillem’s couple is not from Barcelona and has always had to share a flat. The opportunity came when His grandfather had to leave his floor to enter a residence Geriatric because I could no longer live alone. “If we leave your floor the price will be exorbitant, impossible to assume for young people. And much less alone, you have to always share.”

Assigned

Job instability and high prices

Pol and Clara, journalist and graphic designer, both 25 years old, are going to move in May to a flat of Clara’s family, where they lived before. “They have lived outside Barcelona for years although they have been able to keep the floor and when it has been available we have been able to enter.” They will enter with two other friends with whom they have a lot of affinity and who were also interested in becoming independent: “We will pay a price well below the market price and with the advantage that is a family floor.”

Nor would they have decided to take the step without appearing this opportunity. “Being realistic if we had not had this option we would not be able to leave home, for the works we have and for the housing market situation right now.”

From the Unionat de Llogateres, its spokesman Enric Aragonès defends that housing has to stop being a business. “This begins to regulate the rental price to have contracts that give stability. You have to end other uses such as seasonal rental or tourist rental, and prohibit speculative operations.” Ensures that this conflict is reflected in this concrete way preventing young people from becoming independent“although it affects all ages.”

“Surely you cannot overcome it”

In addition to the difficulties derived from the current state of the housing market, discrimination against young people and university students rent floor leads them to a situation of inequality when being able to access an affordable home.

Miquel and Claudia were 24 and 26 respectively when they started looking for a floor. With A relationship already strengthenedthey began to look at options on pages such as idealist, habitaclia and others, without luck.

On several occasions they ran into bad shapes. Even so, they decided to look at an apartment that could no longer be tenants. “Just arriving they told us: ‘We just rented a girl whose father has endorsed her and charges a lot of money per month. That sure you cannot overcome it.”

Until one day they found a beautiful chance. His parents had a floor to a family of three in Hospitale de Llobregat, on the periphery of Barcelona, ​​and in a short time they were completed the contract. Before summer, The owners notified them and had three months to move. In November and after bad experiences with the search, they were able to live. They didn’t care not to be able to see the floor before.

Mirizes that the right to housing and the right to property can coexist “as long as the right to property is not confused with doing what is desired with your properties, raising prices, expelling tenants, etc.” “If housing is a right you have to regulate more than is now,” he concludes.

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