Spain’s current housing crisis is causing a tough situation for tenants, but surprisingly half of them were born abroad.
According to the Living Conditions Survey (ECV) by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), it estimated that just over 10 million people in Spain currently live in rented accommodation, and 5.2 million, which is just over half, were born abroad.
It means that foreigners account for the largest share of the national rental market, occupying 52 percent of the housing stock.
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The proportion of foreign renters is especially high in the Balearic Islands and in Valencia, where almost two out of every three tenants were born outside of Spain.
It also exceeds 50 percent in Aragón, Madrid, Navarre, Murcia, Catalonia, the Basque Country, and the Canary Islands.
The regions with the lowest percentage of foreign-born tenants are Extremadura, Asturias, and Andalusia, all below 40 percent.
Those born in European Union represent just 6.7 percent of these tenants, while those born in the rest of the world make up 46 percent.
Among 18 to 64 year olds, those born abroad now account for 61.5 percent of renters. The proportion is even higher in homes with children where the main breadwinner was born outside of Spain – these account for 67.1 percent of renters.
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On a surface level, it seems that Spaniards themselves are mainly homeowners, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the data is skewed because of the fact that many adult children still live at home with their parents and can’t afford to move out.
The ECV estimates that 6.78 million young people between the ages of 17 and 34 still live with their parents, which is around 70 percent.
This figure rises to 75 percent in the case of those born in Spain, since many of those born abroad in that age group are immigrants who arrived as adults.
Young people born in Spain to immigrant families, however, are among the worst off. Around 86 percent of them continue to live with their parents, often belonging to households with lower incomes.
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There are many reasons for Spain’s housing crisis, including inflation, stagnant wages, speculation from vulture funds, the proliferation of tourist apartments, and lack of social housing, among others.
Another issue is that over the past five years, Spain has welcomed three million foreigners into the country, but construction has not kept pace, meaning there is a large deficit in the number of homes.
The Real Estate Market Report 2026 from OBS Business School estimates the current gap is 740,000 homes and calculates that it would take eight years of construction at record pace to create that number.