Spain pledges €15,000 aid for young people who buy or renovate rural housing

The Spanish government is to boost grants for young people who buy or renovate housing in rural areas of Spain, offering up to €15,000. The Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, announced on Saturday that the increase in public aid for young people who buy or reform homes in inland and low-population municipalities will receive €15,000 instead of the current €10,800. The increased aid for young people aims to help two long-term converging problems in Spanish society: firstly, making housing more accessible to young people; and secondly, the problem of 'empty Spain' (España Vaciada) and depopulation in rural parts of the country. READ ALSO: The overlooked factors causing Spain's housing crisis Rodríguez was speaking in Palencia at the closing of the “Dare, housing is the future" hosted by the Castilla y León Socialist (PSOE) party. In her speech, the Minister also explained that the housing aid for young people will be extended for the first time to towns of up to 20,000 inhabitants, with the aim of reaching more beneficiaries, rather than 10,000. The announcement comes amid a new State Housing Plan 2026-2030, which the government will approve “very soon”, the Minister said, and which will triple state investment to €7 billion. Rodríguez also emphasised that state investment and aid in the property sector must be targeted: "To do this we need to know how many people are demanding housing and where they are demanding it and what types of families they are," the Minister said. She outlined the government's three main housing priorities for the coming years: more public housing supply, more regulation, and more direct aid to the groups and ares that need it most, such as the increased grants for young people. In her speech, the Minister also made reference to 'stressed rental areas' in the big cities, referencing cities in Castilla y León where the price of rent has risen and making a political point, remembering that the region is run by the centre-right People's Party (PP). "The Junta could stop the price of renting in the stressed areas, but the PP does not want to’, the Minister said. The declaration of stressed rental areas to cap soaring rents has been implemented in areas of Catalonia and the cities of A Coruña, San Sebastián, and Pamplona, along with 20 other municipalities in Navarre have been officially declared ‘stressed’ rental zones recently, bringing the total number across all regions to 301. The housing market more broadly, however, has been viewed as the major failure of the Sánchez government. READ ALSO: What happens when a city in Spain is declared a ‘stressed’ rental zone?