Press Release 14/10/2022

POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS and MUNICIPAL HOUSING STATISTICS. 2021

84.5% of families in the Basque Country owned their own home

Renting increased by 5.3 percentage points between 2011 and 2021

According to Eustat data, ownership was the most common tenancy classification among the 913,819 family dwellings in the Basque Country in 2021 and applied to 772,458 homes, representing 84.5% of the total. There were 123,479 dwellings under lease, 13.5%, while the remaining 2% (17,882 homes) corresponded to another type of tenancy, with assignment being the most common.

If we compare these figures with those recorded ten years earlier in 2011, dwellings under lease saw the greatest (positive) variation, with an increase of 52,596 primary dwellings in absolute values, rising from 8.2% in 2011 to 13.5% in 2021, i.e. 5.3 percentage points more in relative terms. As regards ownership, it fell by 1.4 percentage points in this period, going from 85.9% to 84.5%, despite increasing by 33,231 homes in absolute values. By contrast, other forms of tenancy (which include usufruct and administrative transfer among others) decreased in both absolute and relative terms, with 32,530 fewer dwellings, down 3.9 percentage points.

At provincial level, the proportion of main dwellings under ownership varied slightly in 2021; ownership was more common in Bizkaia than in the other two provinces, encompassing 85.5% of total dwellings, compared to 84.1% in Álava and 83.1% in Gipuzkoa. It is precisely this latter province that has registered the greatest variation since 2011, as it started with 86.4% and fell 3.3 percentage points. Also of note was the drop of 1.9 percentage points in Álava since 2011, when its percentage reached 86%. In this regard, Bizkaia was the most stable province given that its weight hardly changed (85.6% in 2011).

In contrast to ownership, with 14.8% of dwellings under lease, Gipuzkoa was the province with the highest percentage of this tenancy classification; renting was also up 7.1 percentage points compared to 2011. Álava, with 14.4%, and six percentage points more than in 2011, surpassed the 12.4% recorded in Bizkaia, where dwellings under lease increased by 3.9 percentage points between 2011 and 2021.

At the regional level, in relation to 2011, the ownership classification saw significant positive variation in the regions of Añana (4.9 percentage points more) and Montaña Alavesa (2.8 percentage points more) in Álava; as well as the regions of Gernika-Bermeo (1.7 percentage points more) and Encartaciones (1.3 percentage points more) in Bizkaia. As regards dwellings under lease, there were positive variations in all the regions compared to 2011. The increases ranged from 2.7 percentage points in Añana to 8.5 in Donostia-San Sebastián. Other notable rises were registered in Bajo Bidasoa (up 7.8 points), Llanada Alavesa and Urola-Costa (up 6.4 points each).

At the municipal level, in 2021, 233 of the 251 municipalities in the Basque Country exceeded the proportion of dwellings under lease in 2011. However, despite this trend, only ten municipalities reached or surpassed the 10 percentage point increase mark in terms of dwellings under lease, most notably Ereño (14 more points), Yécora/Lekora (13 more points), Zerain (12.5 more points), Leza (12.3 more points) and Berrobi (11.3 more points).

With regard to ownership, there were six municipalities with increases of more than 10 percentage points in the last decade, namely: Olaberria (up 16.9 percentage points), Gaintza (up 15.4 points), Trucios-Turtzioz (up 13.5 points), Arakaldo (up 12.7 points), Gaztelu (up 11.1 points) and Sukarrieta (up 10.4 points).

Finally, in relation to the capitals, Vitoria-Gasteiz registered the highest number of dwellings under ownership, 83.5%, closely followed by Bilbao, 83.2%, and, further behind, by San Sebastián, where it accounted for 79.2% of the total. In Vitoria-Gasteiz and Bilbao, the variations were relatively moderate at 2.6 and 1.6 percentage points less, respectively. In San Sebastián, on the other hand, the variations in the last decade were more pronounced, given that the proportion of dwellings under ownership fell by 6.7 percentage points (85.9% in 2011) and the proportion of dwellings under lease rose by 10.9 points, going from 8% in 2011 to 18.9% in 2021.

Renting was more common in the under-30 age group

Analysing tenancy classification by the age of the reference person, understood as the oldest person living there, it was concluded that as people got older the probabilities of having a dwelling under ownership increased, so that amongst those aged under 30 ownership stood at 59.7%; amongst those aged between 30 and 44 it increased to 74% and ended up at 92.6% for those aged over 65.

Consequently, the opposite occurred in dwellings under lease: the trend decreased with age. Amongst older people it barely accounted for 4.3%, whereas for those aged under 30 it applied to a third of dwellings (37.6%).

Finally, the sex of the reference person introduced slight variations amongst the different tenancy options: 86.3% of men had a dwelling under ownership compared to 82.4% of women; this order was reversed in the case of dwellings under lease.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel.: 945 01 75 62