Third of income goes on mortgage payments in the Balearics

THE Balearics is the third autonomous region, behind Madrid and the Basque region, where families spend the most of their money, some 38.3 percent of their net income, on buying a home, according to figures from the latest report of economic trends by the Caixa Catalunya. This study says that the efforts made by families to buy a new home varies notably between regions, the greatest effort being made in Madrid, where 41.5 percent of their net income is spent on buying a home. This followed by the Basque region where 39.9 percent of income is spent on buying a home, and the Balearics with 38.3 percent.
This (38.3 percent) is around the financial limit for a family, set officially at 40 percent of net income. The study shows that, for a home of 100 square metres, less than two years old, and with a mortgage of 25 years for 75 percent of the value of the home, assuming 4 percent interest, the average Spanish family in 2005 spent 30.3 percent of their net income on monthly mortgage repayments. Cataluña (32.5 percent), Andalucia (31.5 percent), Asturias (31 percent), and the Valencia region (30.5 percent) are the other autonomous regions which pay above the national average. Families which spend the least on paying the mortgage are located in Extremadura (18.6 percent).
These are followed by Galicia (22.9 percent), Castilla-La Mancha (24.2 percent), Castilla and Leon (24.3 percent), Murcia (25.3 percent), Navarra (26.4 percent), La Rioja (26.5 percent), Aragon (28.9 percent), Cantabria (29.5 percent) and the Canaries (29.9 percent).