MADRID/LONDON, Feb 27(Reuters) – A Spanish startup is selling bedrooms in flats shared with strangers, a British developer offers mortgages for friends willing to buy together, while stakes in rental properties help some tenants cover their housing costs.
Such unconventional arrangements highlight the lengths some young Europeans are ready to go to cope with a housing crisis that has hit them the hardest.
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Over the past decade, house prices in the European Union grew 10% faster than incomes, according to the European Commission research, and all metrics show that the young feel the squeeze the most.
In Spain, where housing shortages in Madrid, Barcelona and other major cities were made worse by a surge in short-term holiday rentals, Habitacion.com offers individual rooms for up to 80,000 euros ($95,200), about a third of what a one-bedroom flat would fetch in similar locations.
It said it sold 200 rooms last year and has a waiting list of 32,000, with properties in seven cities listed on its website.
OFFER FOR SINGLES ON TIGHT BUDGETS
Founder and CEO Oriol Valls says his firm offers a solution to the squeeze on finances – official data show average Spanish monthly salaries rose 26% over the past decade and property prices 81% – and changing life circumstances.
Bedrooms for sale highlight the depths of Europe’s housing crisis
