Access to the property market is not easy for many young Spaniards, a problem the Spanish housing sector has tried to tackle for years by suggesting different measures to public administrations. In this sense, five months have passed since the Government gave green light to the Bono Alquiler Joven (Young Rental Scheme). This grant of €250 per month for tenants under 35 can only be applied for in the Valencian Community and Catalonia, while the rest of the autonomous communities have yet to publish requirements for the call.
The situation is uneven in the rest of Spain. Aragon and Galicia plan to launch at the end of June; Asturias, Cantabria, La Rioja, Castilla-Leon, and the Balearic Islands in July; and Madrid expects to do so ‘in the coming weeks’, according to Madrid’s regional government. This is because Isabel Diaz Ayuso and her team are drawing up the basis for a call that could benefit almost 10,000 young people in Madrid.
The Valencian Community, for its part, was the first to announce this aid (1st June) and received 11,609 applications in the first 15 days, according to the Regional Ministry of Housing, which will allocate €45 million. In Catalonia, the grant can be applied for since 8th June and petitions will be solved by order of submission at the registry, provided they are complete and until the available funding is exhausted. However, the Generalitat already warned the aid will only stretch to some 9,600 young people and has asked the central government to allocate a larger budget for this purpose, arguing the €29 million allocated is ‘clearly insufficient’.
How to obtain the Bono Alquiler Joven (Young Rental Scheme)
Following the avalanche of applications from young people who aim to alleviate rent problems with this aid offered by the government, the question is clear: Who is entitled to receive the grant? The state decree that regulates it sets the amount at €250 a month during two years for young people aged between 18 and 35 who earn less than three times the Public Multiple Effect Income Indicator (Indicador Público de Renta de Efectos Múltiples, IPREM), the index used in Spain as a reference for granting aids, subsidies, or unemployment benefit. To be granted this aid, youngsters must rent housing for €600 or less a month (extendable in each autonomous community to €900) or a room for up to €300 (extendable to €450).