They work more than one job, bring part of their salary home, or have completed a university degree and a master’s degree, but they see how leaving home is still just an aspiration. The Gonzalo Horvath, 26 years old; the Naila Gomezof 28; and the brothers Eric Carmonaof 25, i Oscar Carmona22, see this every time they look for an apartment or when, simply, they come face to face with the reality of an unfulfilled promise: studying and working no longer guarantees the personal project. Emancipation demands savings, salaries and often contacts they don’t haveand the country’s real estate market closes the door to the possibility of looking for the future they want to develop. One idea runs through them all: “We work to live, we don’t live to work”.
Éric and Óscar criticize the price hike and point out that salaries should go up.
Eric Carmona, 25
EVEN WITH TWO JOBS, HE ARRIVED TO LEAVE HOME
Eric25 years old, has been trying to leave his parents’ house for some time. He works in the cast and he supplements his income with football-related jobsincluding the monitoring of children. With days that can last practically all day, he regrets that to pay for an apartment I would still have to work more hours. “Do I have to work twelve hours every day to be able to afford an apartment?”, he asks.
Éric criticizes that living doesn’t just mean paying the rent
A couple of years ago he tried to emancipate himself with an ex-partner, however not even with two salaries could they afford a rent and save. He has also done numbers to share housing with friends, without finding a viable way out. “No matter how much you manage to pay the rent, you don’t live You have no social life. You can’t save,” he complained. The problem, he says, isn’t just the monthly price: you have to add food, supplies, transportation and insurance.
With the current partner applied for a flat in Borda Nova I. As he relates, a document arrived two days late due to an administrative incident that those in charge would have recognized. “I was left homeless because of this”, he lamented. Despite the error, the request was excluded. Later, at a meeting, he said he was told that the available flats were two-bedroom flats and that he did not meet the requirements to access them. He has also sought other public housing options, without success.
theEric sorry to have reached the point of consider leaving the country where he has grown practically since he was bornbut considers that wages have not kept up with housing prices and complains that the answer cannot be to work more and more hours. “They are taking us out of the country”, he says. In his opinion, the situation could end up “kicking”.
Oscar Carmona, 22
THE OPTION OF LEAVING THE COUNTRY ON THE TABLE
theOscar is 22 years old and he lives with his parents and his two brothers. Works in distribution, such asEric. Although he could still extend the stage before emancipation, when he goes on the market to look for apartments, “all the prices I find are too high”. With the family he made a calculation: it would take around 8,000 euros to leave home between rent, deposit, parking, supplies and extras. Also, although the flats available in the higher parishes or in the centers further from the center may have prices a little lower, commuting daily also makes the price more expensive.
Óscar and his partner are considering moving to Portugal
Buying is also not feasible: ensure that in a mortgage consultation they asked him for a down payment of around 90,000 euros and now evaluates an alternative outside the country: his partner has a house in Portugal and they plan to move there when she finishes her studies. The situation generates “anger and impotence”. Explain that working so many hours has led him to arrive home exhaustedno energy to spend time with your partner or friends. “You get tired of working, working and working to make ends meet,” he said.
Oscar and Eric they also have to contend with an uncertain family situation. The contract for the flat where they live expires between April and May. Before looking for one of their own, they have to find a roof for all five of them. This situation affects the whole family: even the parents, who have been working in the country for decades, they may be forced to move house. The children’s priority is to maintain the stability of the domicile before gathering money to emancipate themselves. In the debate about the alternatives to a private market that they cannot assume, theOscar shows skepticism about public policies and the actions taken by the administration: “They will get the people to rebel”he announced. He also criticizes the exorbitant prices of flats and that nothing has been done to stop it: “It shouldn’t be like this”.
The concern also extends to the expenses that would entail starting a family or, simply, being able to maintain a certain social life: “Living is not only the flat, it is everything that means living”.
Gonzalo Horvath, 26 years old
HELPING AT HOME ALSO COUNTS
The Gonzalo is 26 years old, has been living in Andorra and still shares a flat with his mother, in Santa Coloma. His father died when he was young and he contributes around 600 euros a month to cover the rent and family expenses of the household. He works as a salesman and food delivery man and also as a monitor at Rusc. Between both jobs, he accumulates around fifty hours a week. He can save, but not enough to become independent in the conditions he would like. “I don’t want to spend all my money on rent”he assures, because then he may have to leave: “Any day they tell you: ‘come on, you’re gone and you’re out'”.
Gonzalo works about 50 hours a week.
For years he has been asking friends and acquaintances if they know of any available flats. He prefers word of mouth to real estate agencies and it is clear that he wants to buy. He believes that a mortgage would give him more security than a high rent for a small home: “I have friends who are renting and they tell me they pay too much for a flat,” he explained. The options available to you are: old flats, often in need of renovations, or with prices you can’t afford. In addition, the rental also collides with a need that he wants to have covered: he would like to live with a pet, and currently many of the rental offers forbid it.
The long waits to access public floors are frustrating
At the age of 22 he enrolled in the jovial. At the time he was studying and working and a small flat would have allowed him to leave home. Four years later, he has received a notice to update his documentation, but now he has a partner, wants to start a family and he needs another type of housing. “I wanted it when I was 22”, he lamented. Nor has he processed access to the public park, discouraged by the wait.
The situation has forced him to postpone plans and to assume that emancipation may not come when imagined. He has consulted prices in Spain and does not rule out that the future is outside of Andorra, despite valuing its tranquility. He worries that working does not guarantee an independent life: “We must work to live, not live to work”and it is clear that he does not want to allocate the salary only to the ceiling.
Naila Gómez, 28 years old
THE FALSE PROMISE OF STUDIES
Naila Gomez28 years old, studied psychology and a master’s degree in Barcelona and returned to Andorra with 24 years He lived for a year with an ex-partner in a flat found by a family contact, but after the separation he returned to his parents’ house. “Double homecoming”, he summed up.
Naila has a university degree and a master’s degree.
He has searched portals, real estate agencies, even auction flats and among acquaintances, however he only finds small studios, no parking and far from work. “I don’t know anyone who has emancipated himself”, he assured about his environment, in which those who have left home need family properties, guarantees or contacts. She saves and helps her parents, also tenants.
The lack of housing generates enormous frustration
His parents are retired and spend seasons outsideAndorra, which allows her to have the family flat for herself. But he does not consider it a real emancipation, but “the false emancipation, the one we live in constantly”because he continues to depend on a home that is not his.
For four years he worked at the Meritxell Foundation with contracts from September to July, which left her without income for two months. A few weeks ago he started a new job, with a two-year contract. She adds extras as a swimming referee, monitor or babysitterbut does not save enough for the entrance of an apartment.
When he returned from studying, he decided to enroll in the flats of jovialbut the perspective of one a five-year wait made her give up. Now, after that time, she is still not emancipated. “I thought that after five years I would be emancipated. And now these five years have passed and I’m still the same”, she lamented.
The situation causes him “enormous frustration”. In her thirties, she feels fully grown, but still dependent on her family. “It’s very hard, it’s very frustrating to plan and see that you never reach the goals”, he explained. I wouldn’t want to leave Andorraalthough he contemplates that living in the headquarters oh organ may end up being a necessity. He criticizes that young people are asked to train and work without then offering them the possibility to stay in the country. “To live is to live, with everything included, not just to have a place to sleep”, he claims.
Jovial flats.
JOVIAL FLATS, A TEMPORARY SOLUTION
He returned to Andorra at 22 years old, at the end of his studies, i was registered in the capital’s public flats. Since the age of 23, he has consulted daily real estate portals, contacted agencies and visited homes, both for purchase and for rent. With a stable job for two years and a salary that he considers good, he aspired to buy with the help of his parents, but found only inaccessible offers “up to 500,000 euros for flats of 50 square meters. It is almost impossible to become independent on your own”, he lamented. In August, he received a call from the community offering him a home. Now allocates the 30% of salary in rent, an expense that allows her to live alone, but also limits the capacity to save. Without Jovial, he believes he would have continued with his parents until he was thirty. He acknowledges that he has had family support and job stability, two advantages that not everyone has. The relief, however, is not final: the contract is for five years. He fears that when it ends, the market will remain inaccessible. “It fell from the sky”, he says of the opportunity, aware that his emancipation still has an expiry date
