The rise in housing prices in Spain is pushing more and more pensioners towards solutions that until recently seemed unthinkable, such as sharing a home to be able to pay their rent. The rental crisis no longer affects only the youngest people and starts to hit hard those who live on fixed pensions, as is the case of this 72-year-old pensioner, named Miguel Ángel, who, despite having a pension of more than 2,000 euros per month, has to share a house with a young man.
In large Spanish cities, the cost of rent has been rising steadily, changing lifestyle habits and making access to decent housing increasingly difficult.
This phenomenon is no longer limited to younger generations and is beginning to affect a growing number of older people, many of them after decades of living independently.
The widespread rise in rents led many pensioners to allocate more than 40% of their monthly income just to pay for their house. Given this scenario, sharing a floor has become, in many cases, the only possible solution to maintain a roof, according to the Spanish digital newspaper Noticias Trabajo.
A pensioner forced to share a house
This is the case of Miguel Ángel, a 72-year-old retiree who lives in Seville. After a lifetime of living alone, he found himself forced to share a house with a 24-year-old young man, equally affected by the rise in housing costs. A similar reality is experienced by Begoña, also a pensioner, who shares a house with 12 other people.
“The economy forces me to do this”, admits Miguel Ángel, in an interview with Cadena SER. The decision, he explains, was not taken lightly, but ended up being inevitable.
Income rose more than 20% in just three years
According to the pensioner, the breaking point came with the sharp rise in the value of rent. “I started by paying 660 euros for an apartment on the outskirts of the city. It wasn’t the best area, but it was in good condition and my pension, around 2,000 euros a month, allowed me to live with some peace of mind.”
In just three years, the rental value increased by 23%, rising to close to 830 euros. “It’s no longer a third of my pension, it’s almost half”, he laments, highlighting that this evolution has made it impossible to continue living alone, according to the source previously mentioned.
No alternatives on the market
The retired man, aged 72, guarantees that he tried to find a cheaper house, but without success. “In Seville, below 820 or 830 euros there is practically nothing. My apartment could even be considered cheap at current prices”, he says.
Given the lack of alternatives, he decided to publish an ad to share a house. “It’s not renting a room, it’s sharing the floor and expenses with someone who also needs a solution”, he explains. He recognizes that he lost part of his freedom when he started living with someone he didn’t know, but he ended up meeting a young cook who also spends around a third of his salary on rent.
A portrait of the rental crisis in Spain
The experience of Miguel Ángel and his housemate illustrates how far the rental crisis in Spain has come.
In big cities, prices continue to rise, while salaries and pensions do not keep up with this evolution, making it increasingly difficult to live alone without seriously compromising the monthly budget, according to .
Rental situation in Portugal
If this scenario were transposed to Portugal, the reality would not be very different. Also in the main Portuguese cities, such as Lisbon and Porto, the increase in rents has put strong pressure on family budgets, including those of pensioners.
With average pensions lower than in Spain and an equally tense rental market, many Portuguese retirees already face similar difficulties, especially in urban centers and more sought-after areas. In several cases, the percentage of income allocated to housing approaches or exceeds 40%, a value considered unsustainable.
Although home sharing among pensioners is not yet as visible in Portugal, warning signs exist. Without a significant increase in the supply of affordable housing or effective price control measures, this could become an increasingly common reality among Portuguese retirees as well.
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