The bursting of the housing bubble in 2008 has changed the rules of the game when it comes to buying a home. Now the entities financial institutions do not grant more than 80% of the appraised value of the mortgage, so the remaining 20% must be provided by the buyer in advance, at least. This requirement, designed as a containment dam to avoid making mistakes in the past, has resulted in a prohibitive market for new generations.
The two economic crises that this segment of the population have had to face from a very early age, has resulted in a low saving capacity and it keeps them more and more away from the possibility of buying a home. “The pandemic has been a trend accelerator. We have seen that the segments with tickets middle and upper classes have continued to increase demand, while the segments of tickets low are moving towards rent, which provides a solution to a significant percentage of people who have difficulties to access a home that you own ”, said the CEO of Aedas Homes, David Martínez, during the Real Estate Financing Meeting of Madrid (Efimad), organized by CaixaBank and the Association of Real Estate Developers (Asprima).
During his speech at the debate table Analysis of the real estate sector. News and perspectives, Martínez warned that this situation, together with the paralysis of foreign investment as a result of restrictions on mobility, have caused a “Embalming” of the demand for housing, despite the savings rate being at all-time highs. “This problem has been covered by the social and economic crisis. But as soon as we overcome them, we are going to meet people who need access to housing, ”Martínez remarks, while warning that “Without housing no homes are formed and there is no future, neither for them nor for us”.
In this regard, the corporate director of the Real Estate Business of CaixaBank, Daniel Caballero, argues that young people do not have Sufficient liquidity to pay the down payment of a house, but they do have resources to meet the payment of the mortgage payment.
In this context, both real estate developers and financial entities have been open to analyzing new ways so that the achievement of a home in property does not become a fantasy within the reach of a few. In mid-2020, the president of Banco Santander, Ana Botín, proposed a shopping program for young people that would allow the granting of a 95% mortgage of the value with the endorsement of the Official Credit Institute, an initiative that, for the moment, does not finish convincing the agents of the sector.
From CaixaBank Research they draw a quite uneven scenario with advances of 4.4% in the sale of homes for this 2021, which will translate into some 420,000 operations, compared to the 500,000 registered in the 2019 financial year. ensures that the market is below its potential and will continue until the situation arising from the pandemic normalizes. With all this, it observes a moderate impact on prices with 2% adjustments, more accentuated in the first part of the year, to end the year with increases. In any case, the evolution will be very uneven depending on the type of home. While new construction will continue to rise, used will take a little longer to recover from the pothole. Thus, he has called for a more “ambitious” housing policy to increase the stock of social housing.
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