Canary Islands rents exceed young people's salaries, housing report finds
Renting alone in the Canary Islands costs 126.5% of a young person's salary, a report finds. The regional figures shed light on housing pressures in Fuerteventura.
Young people in the Canary Islands would need 126.5% of their salary to rent a home alone. The figure comes from the Observatorio de Emancipación 2025 report, presented by the Consejo de la Juventud de España.
Noticias Fuerteventura reported the findings on 29 October 2026. They provide regional context for young residents thinking of leaving the family home in Fuerteventura. The figures cover the Canary Islands as a whole. The source gives no separate figures for each island.
Renting alone costs more than a salary
Researcher Manuel Mejías said average monthly rent in the islands reached €1,224 in 2025. This was up 8% on the previous year. By contrast, young people’s real wages had grown by only 6% since 2008.
The report found that 15.4% of 16- to 29-year-olds lived outside the family home. This was among the lowest rates in the report’s records. It linked the situation mainly to the rising costs of renting and buying a home.
Sharing is becoming more common. In the Canary Islands, 46.6% of young people who rented shared a home. This was an increase of 13.3 percentage points compared with 2024.
Buying a home also posed major barriers. Mejías said a young buyer would need close to 85% of their salary for mortgage payments. The deposit would cost the equivalent of 5.5 years of their entire salary.
Employment does not remove the pressure
The study found that 25.6% of employed young people in the islands were at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
Eliana Parrilla, president of the Consejo de la Juventud en Canarias, called for public housing policies. She said these needed budgets, timetables and results that could be checked. She also criticised delays in rental support.
The report also changed its research methods this year. It replaced the Labour Force Survey with the annual Survey of Living Conditions. The aim was to make comparisons easier and improve the study of young people’s social circumstances.