Spanish Engineer Won't Return Without Housing Inheritance

Skilled youth won't return without inheriting a home

A 25-year-old Spanish engineer living in the Turkish region of Izmir and working for a Czech company is clear: he has no intention of returning to Spain until he inherits. His case is not an exception. Much of his generation, he reports, has made inheritance their primary plan for accessing housing. The reason is simple and harsh: the ratio between salary and housing prices has broken down, making a return viable only if accompanied by owned property.

The initial premise is this: a group of friends and former colleagues, most working outside Spain or living with parents, have stopped viewing buying as a realistic option. It is not a matter of life priorities, but of arithmetic. Buying in Spain requires a salary effort that does not match earnings abroad, and the differential is so large that the return is postponed indefinitely.

The undisputed calculation: earn more, pay less abroad

The protagonist details it bluntly. In Izmir, where he resides, a detached house in a new district costs the same as a dilapidated apartment in a mediocre area of Spain. His mortgage remains active, but the down payment was covered by his parents and his partner's. He works remotely for a Czech firm, traveling to headquarters once a month, sometimes less. His own comparison is brutal: it would be like buying in Pozuelo at the price of an apartment in Castilla la Mancha.

His conclusion is relentless: it makes no sense to return to earn less than half and dedicate 50% of the salary to rent. His return is conditional on inheritance. If it comes soon, he goes back. If not, he stays. Meanwhile, his parents age, and he sees them at Christmas and one week of vacation.

Inheritance as a life plan: how long to wait?

The hope of inheriting has a calendar problem. At 25 with parents aged 60, the wait could last three decades. This calculation, raised as a warning in discussions, dismantles the strategy: if inheritance arrives at 55, the life project has already been decided in another country. The lingering question is what happens in the meantime.

Some add an even worse scenario. Inheritance is not guaranteed: parents may need residential care, and the cost of a place can deplete assets. In that case, heirs receive nothing and may be forced to sell the home to pay for care. Inheritance becomes a roulette wheel.

Real estate as a brake on the labor market

The issue transcends the personal. If skilled professionals do not return because they cannot access housing, the Spanish labor market loses talent that has proven it can compete abroad. The protagonist points out: in the future, studies will examine the damage real estate has done to qualified employment in Spain.

Comparison with other countries is inevitable. In Central Europe, renting culture is much more widespread and not socially penalized. In Spain, homeownership remains a test of maturity, and those who fail are stigmatized. That pressure pushes people to wait for inheritance rather than build alternatives.

The risk no one wants to face: taxes and expropriations

The waiting strategy also carries fiscal risks. Tax authorities can review declared values in sales and demand the difference in Transfer Tax (ITP), according to a specific case: a buyer who paid €200,000 for an apartment valued by the administration at €300,000 ended up appealing and winning. The scare, in any case, is real.

Beyond fiscal issues, some speculate about legislative changes taxing inheritances or limiting private property. These are unconfirmed conjectures, but they fuel the feeling that the inheritance plan is not safe either. The State, it is argued, always finds a way to take its share.

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With these elements, returning to Spain becomes an equation that doesn't balance. Those who left with degrees and good salaries find no reason to return if the entry price is sacrificing their standard of living. Inheritance, which should be a safety net, has transformed into the only viable path. Meanwhile, the country loses those educated here.