Housing and young people: an expectation or a reality

Abstract

Over the last decade, the spectacular increase in house prices in Spain has given rise to a critical a situation with regard to housing access for young people, immigrants and separated people, which affects an ever increasingly large section of the population. This phenomenon has been addressed in a number of studies: Trilla, C. (2000), CES (2002), Miret, P. (2004), Trilla, C. (2004), OCJ (2005), García P., García A. and Fullaondo, A. (2006). This high tendency, promoted by economic, social and urban factors, is experienced most widely in the medium and large sized Spanish cities, effecting the adjacent municipalities and metropolitan areas, and bringing about increases in house prices in the principal urban centres.

This article seeks to examine what has happened, in the case of Catalonia and in particular in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona, with reference to some of the key factors in the economic and urban environment, deriving from social experiences, that have brought about this situation. In summary the article carries out a reflection over some necessary considerations in order to confront the so-called "housing crisis" with a view facilitating housing access for young people.