13% of Spanish Homebuyers Target Villages Under 10,000 as Urban Housing Costs Surge
Updated
Updated · Euronews · Aug 25
13% of Spanish Homebuyers Target Villages Under 10,000 as Urban Housing Costs Surge
2 articles · Updated · Euronews · Aug 25
Summary
13% of Spaniards looking to buy a home plan to move to towns with fewer than 10,000 residents, with the typical would-be mover about 35 and earning €1,000 to €3,000 a month.
Urban housing has become unreachable for many young adults: home prices rose 14.7% over the past year, rents 10.9%, and those living alone spend an average 98.7% of salary on housing.
That squeeze is delaying independence—only 14.5% of people aged 16 to 29 have left home, the average move-out age has climbed to 30 versus 26 in the EU, and 44.3% of 26-to-34-year-olds still lived with family in 2025.
Fotocasa says the shift is concentrated among working-age buyers rather than retirees, especially people from Catalonia, Andalusia and Madrid who increasingly see depopulated villages as the only affordable path to ownership.
Spain's 'empty' rural areas offer cheaper homes but still lack jobs, transport, healthcare and connectivity, limiting whether this migration can become a durable answer to the housing crisis.