Young people and emancipation, mortgage and residential markets

Abstract

This paper emerges from doctoral research currently being undertaken relating to The emancipation of young people from a socioeconomic perspective and from the property market. Proposals for social management of housing. It deals with the emancipation process from different aspects that at the same time favour or complicate it. It starts out by identifying three hypotheses: the socioeconomic situation of young people; the residential property market; and the effects of the second demographic transition, that delay the process of emancipation and diversify the forms of cohabitation.

The territorial framework of analysis is the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona, which has experienced high growth in property prices that has often caused the emigration of the population from the large cities towards other nearby municipalities in search of a better quality of life and greater access to housing.  The case studies are carried out in the region of Maresme, an area which encapsulates the process of decentralisation from the large cities towards the periphery of the wider Metropolitan Region.

Through the exploitation of statistical data from censuses and electoral registers, the socioeconomic situation of young people and the most determinant factors in their process of emancipation are analysed, followed by the situation of the property market, as well as the changes that have been produced. This is complemented by means of a survey, which shows the most subjective aspects of the process and the most significant factors and needs. These needs are materialised in some models and residential typologies that, in the final instance, are contrasted with the current residential market and young people’s ability to accede to the said market.