“The system is made for couples”. Hugo, a 32-year-old computer engineer, summarizes in his own way what has been a fact: life is more expensive for single people. The Not having a partner in Spain has long been synonymous with paying more, especially for housing. And that when, year after year, the number of single-person households does not stop growing. There are already more than 5,204,000, according to the latest survey by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Namely: a single person lives in more than one in four dwellings.
In cities like Madrid, the average price per square meter is already 15 euros, according to the Idealista report from March 2022. This means that a 40-meter one-bedroom apartment costs an average of around 600 euros. In Barcelona, the price half a square meter is 16.1 euros. Hugo paid 800 euros for his flat in Lavapiés (Madrid). He added about 150 euros for electricity (he had electric heating), another 50 for internet and 190 for parking. So he has just left Madrid to return to his parents’ house in Zaragoza. He believes that it is the only way to save and thus access a mortgage. “With my job, I’m either at home or travelling, so why should I be paying more than a thousand euros to live in Madrid,” he explains.
Sharing a flat in your thirties
“Aid has to be for the less favored, but the system only pushes you into a family model because people who live alone are the ones who pay the most,” exclaims Hugo. He assures that everything would be easier with a partner or living with a roommate. “But at 33 I’m not willing to do it,” he says.
Virginia, 32, works in the Business Development department at a major law firm. she does share a flat because, if not, “it would be suicide”. “I can afford it, but I would live very drowning and I would not have that amount of money available that I now spend on savings or leisure,” she says. Job instability is another reason why he has not just taken the step to become independent. The latest Youth in Spain 2020 Report showed that if in 2010 53.3% of young people between 18 and 34 years old still lived with their parents, in 2019 64.5% were in this situation.
Single-parent families denounce systemic discrimination
The ‘single’ rate, however, does not penalize only the rent. The price between a double and a single room (even if it is the same) differs very little in the hotels. There are also plenty of 2-for-1 deals on trips, “minimum two people” meals, and more difficulties in obtaining a mortgage with a single owner. And there are still more. “A lot of products [de comida] they are set so that the savings format is the familiar one. But, if you live alone, everything is spoiled for you”reasons María Rosa, 31 years old.
This screenwriter pays 650 for her apartment and is the only one of her four siblings who is single, which means that at Christmas she buys gifts for two each. “You do it with all the desire in the world, but you always lose out,” she says. The UK Office for National Statistics revealed in a 2019 report that those who live alone spend an average of 92% of their disposable income, compared to two-adult households, which spent 83%. Ángeles Zabaleta, a consumer expert at the Nielsen agency, explained that spending among the ‘singles’ could increase by up to 25% compared to households with two or three members.
From a fiscal point of view, marriage is also cheaper. The law firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo explains that they have the possibility of accessing the reduction by joint declaration in personal income tax. They also “receive better tax treatment in certain taxes, such as inheritance and donations.” These tax differences are extended when there are children and it is time to make the rent. In joint income tax returns of family units made up of non-separated spouses with minor children who live with them, as well as disabled adults, the tax base is reduced by 3,400 euros per year. On the other hand, in single-parent families in this situation, the reduction is 2,150 euros.
marital status discrimination
The data is provided by Carmen Flores, spokesperson for the Federation of Associations of Single Mothers, who advocate for a single-parent family box in the statement: “Since 2008, single-parent families made up of widows with two or more children are considered numerous; separated or single no. There is discrimination based on marital status..
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He assures that this discrimination extends to many other laws. It gives an example that, when opting for a school, the unit of coexistence is taken into account. This harms mothers who live with other people because they cannot bear the expenses alone, even if they are the most vulnerable. “It is something that also happens with the Minimum Vital Income. They cannot access this aid because they are in the same household with more people. The new Housing Law does not contemplate single-parent families either,” she says.
Inequalities that also extend to housing. “To rent, a single person with children is considered to have a higher risk of non-payment because the work is unstable and, in the case of women, they tend to be more precarious and less paid. The risk does not have to be real, but real estate agencies and landlords do think so,” he says. “We live in a system that conceives the traditional family and period”Flores denounces. They hope that a Family Law will be approved with a chapter that speaks of single-parent families in the terms that they demand: conciliation measures, support for employment and housing that will make a life a little easier for them, without a partner and with small , it is already difficult enough from an economic point of view.