Over 62pc of salary to buy a home

YOUNG people in the Balearics dedicate 62.4 percent of their total income to buying a home, almost double that paid by the residents of Extremadura (32.5 percent), according to a study done by the Youth Council who say that the national average for young people is 53.2 percent of salary. The amount of young people in Spain who had left home rose in 2005 by 6.98 percent, although the difficulties they had in buying a home got worse for the second year running, forcing them to dedicate 53.2 percent of their income to buying a home on the free market. These observations are to be found in the yearbook of the Observatorio Joven de la Vivienda (Objovi) for the year 2005, published by the Youth Council of Spain (CJE). Those who have to pay more than the national average from their salary to buy a home are those in Madrid (70.5 percent of salary), the Basque region (66.4 percent) and the Balearics (62.4 percent). At the opposite end of the scale is Extremadura with 32.5 percent.