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Jaime Palomera: “Telling young people they do not save or work enough is criminal”

From Clarín · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Interview Named sources Context piece
  • Housing prices in Spain rose 12.9% year on year in the first quarter of 2026, while average rents reached 15.3 euros per square meter, according to cited data.
  • Anthropologist Jaime Palomera argues that young people face structural barriers because housing prices have outpaced wages.
  • He says the solution requires strong state intervention, citing Vienna’s combination of market regulation and public housing.

Jaime Palomera rejects the idea that young people cannot buy homes because they fail to save, work or plan properly. “They are telling young people, and I think this is criminal, that they do not save enough, that they do not work enough or that they take too many holidays,” he said on Cadena SER’s El Balcó program.

They are telling young people, and I think this is criminal, that they do not save enough, that they do not work enough or that they take too many holidays.

· Jaime PalomeraHe criticized the idea that young people are responsible for their difficulty accessing housing.

The housing market gives his argument a stark numerical basis. Home values remain at record levels, with Spain’s Housing Price Index showing a 12.9% annual increase in the first quarter of 2026. Rents have also continued to rise, reaching an average of 15.3 euros, or $17.70, per square meter, according to the property portal Idealista. A Bank of Spain analysis found that new rental contracts are signed at prices averaging 16.6% above existing contracts.

Palomera, an anthropologist and member of the Institute for Urban Research, or IDRA, argues that the problem is economic rather than behavioral. “It is criminal because it is economic, the data is economic, it is mathematical,” he said. He contrasted the time needed to buy a home with the past: “We have gone from three years to pay for a home to 10.” That calculation means a young person would need to devote an entire decade of full wages to buying a home, without spending on anything else.

It is criminal because it is economic, the data is economic, it is mathematical.

· Jaime PalomeraHe argued that housing unaffordability reflects measurable economic conditions rather than personal attitudes.

He says wages, when they grow at all, are rising far more slowly than asset prices. “The major problem we have is that wages grow, if they grow, at a much lower rate than the price of assets,” he said. “We have turned housing into an asset.” In his view, treating housing and food as attractive investment assets has made affordability increasingly difficult.

We have gone from three years to pay for a home to 10.

· Jaime PalomeraHe compared the time required to afford a home now with the past.

Palomera also rejects a simple conflict between generations. The issue, he says, is not merely that young people are struggling while baby boomers had it easy, but that “the economic rules of the game” have changed. He has previously backed decisive state intervention, pointing to Vienna’s regulated market and public housing model. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has also warned that rising housing costs worsen the problem.

We have turned housing into an asset.

· Jaime PalomeraHe described what he sees as the structural change behind rising housing costs.
About this summary

Originally published by Clarín in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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