Buying a Home in San Sebastián Requires €4,500 Monthly Net Income

Homeownership in San Sebastián demands €4,500 net monthly: The middle class is excluded
Imagine a 100-square-meter apartment in Vallecas, a working-class neighborhood in Madrid. Fifty years ago, a self-employed professional could afford it. Today, its price hovers around €500,000. To pay the mortgage for such a house, a family needs net income exceeding €4,500 per month. This is not an isolated case: San Sebastián, Madrid, and Barcelona have already surpassed this threshold, according to data from Accumin Intelligence. The middle class has simply been left out.

The jump from €2,500 to €5,000
Accumin's report indicates that in 14 Spanish cities, household salaries must exceed €2,500 net to handle the mortgage of a typical home. In San Sebastián, the figure doubles: more than €5,000 net per month is required. This is not a perception; it is mathematics. A gross annual salary of €100,000 (in 14 payments) places one in the 98th percentile of the wage distribution, yet barely covers a mortgage in those cities. Note that the conditions are strict: a 20% down payment, a fixed interest rate of 3%, and a 30-year term.

The illusion of historical comparison
Prices rise, and so does nostalgia. A bricklayer in Poble Sec bought a 90-square-meter apartment in 1965 for 180,000 pesetas, with a 15-year mortgage where the installment was 75% of his salary. Back then, a single income was enough. Today, with Euribor at high levels and prices skyrocketing, even two salaries of €50,000 gross do not guarantee the deal. The difference is not rhetorical; it is structural. Supply has not grown at the pace of demand, and tourism-driven housing and investment funds have inflated the available stock.

Fleeing to the periphery: Solution or band-aid?
Faced with the impossibility of buying in major cities, many choose to relocate. Toledo, Valladolid, Segovia, and Zamora see their early morning trains filled with workers commuting to Madrid. A round alucinación can cost €30 per day in commuter passes, and door-to-door travel time exceeds two hours. Those who do this earn money in Madrid but lose time and quality of life. It is the new geography of the middle class: living where you can afford, working where the jobs are.

There is no easy fix. Some suggest raising the minimum wage, others advocate for stricter regulations on short-term rentals. Meanwhile, as long as market fundamentals remain unchanged, homeownership continues to drift further away from the reach of ordinary earners.