Mortgage Guarantee Scheme Broadened for Families
The Canary Islands’ ‘Young Mortgage’ (Hipoteca Joven) initiative is expanding its reach. It will no longer be limited to the under-40s, as the regional government also plans to offer mortgage support for first-time home purchases to families with dependent children, with no upper age limit. The new decree regulating this measure introduces a fresh line of guarantees called ‘My First Home’ (Mi Primera Vivienda). This programme aims to benefit family units with minors, focusing especially on single-parent and large families who, regardless of the parent’s age, face serious difficulties in buying their first home due to soaring property prices, a shortage of supply, and economic hardship.
Addressing the Savings Gap and Market Challenges
The Autonomous Community will also facilitate a guarantee for these social groups with financial institutions that sign up to the scheme via an agreement. The decree regulating the Young Mortgage-My First Home programme is now in a public consultation period, following a previous one in April 2025. After that initial period and the feedback received, the need to refocus the programme became clear due to the difficulties of buying a home beyond the age of 35, which was the age limit for the Young Mortgage scheme in previous legislative terms. Consequently, coverage has been extended to those up to 40 and to families with dependent children of any age.
The conclusions from the first public hearing on the measure are clear: low savings capacity significantly hinders access to home ownership. Therefore, the main proposals focus on raising the age limit for beneficiaries and increasing the maximum value of the property that can be purchased. The preliminary report justifying the need for the decree places special emphasis on the inequalities faced by single-parent families when buying a home, where there is a higher incidence of unemployment, poverty, and job insecurity. According to Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), women head 81% of this type of household.
New Property Price and Eligibility Criteria
In addition to raising the age limit and including other social groups, the regional government has increased the maximum price for a home to be eligible for the guarantee. The draft decree states: “The purchase price of the home, excluding inherent costs and taxes, shall be equal to or less than €250,000. This purchase price must include any parking spaces, storage rooms, or other annexes attached to the property.” Furthermore, the properties can be newly built, second-hand (or subsequent sale), free-market or privately developed protected housing, or self-built. In all cases, the usable floor area cannot exceed 120 square metres, excluding any annexes they may have. Publicly promoted protected housing is not eligible for this programme.
Learning from Past Programme Shortfalls
The current government has reactivated the Young Mortgage scheme, giving it new impetus and new rules following the problems this programme faced in the past. In the early 2000s, the Canarian government launched this initiative, but the 2008 economic crisis, drastic budget cuts, and the bursting of the property bubble left hundreds of young people without the funds the government had promised them, despite them being approved. Nearly 2,000 Canary Islanders between 25 and 35 bought their homes between 2009 and 2012 relying on the Young Mortgage budget programme, which established grants of between €1,500 and €12,000 for this purpose. What happened later left several hundred young people without the promised money, some of whom never received the committed funds.
Expanded Eligibility and Guarantee Terms
The new decree offers access to this guarantee line not only to Spanish nationals but also to citizens of European Union member states or third countries outside the EU, provided they have legal residence in Spain. In addition to large and single-parent families, applicants who have had a child by birth or adoption in the calendar year of the application to the financial institution will also have no age limit. This applies to institutions that have signed an agreement with the Autonomous Community to participate in the programme.
According to the draft decree, “each guarantee established with the financial institution will cover defaults on principal instalments occurring during the first 10 years of the mortgage loan, regardless of any agreed grace periods for the borrowers and even if the mortgage credit term is longer than ten years.” This extends the safety net timeline for families who take part in the scheme.
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