Buying a home in the Canary Islands is becoming increasingly difficult, even for people with a stable income and the financial capacity to pay a mortgage every month. According to figures released this week by Qualis Credit Risk, residents of the Archipelago now need an average of €47,143 in initial savings to access a mortgage in Spain.
This represents an increase of 7.45% compared with the previous year, showing that the main obstacle for many potential buyers is no longer only the monthly mortgage payment, but the large amount of money required before the purchase can even be completed.
By province, the figures are almost identical. In Las Palmas, the average savings needed to buy a home now stand at €47,249, up 7.46% year-on-year. In Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the amount required is slightly lower, at €47,041, also representing an increase of 7.46%.
The figures highlight the growing pressure on households in the Canary Islands, where the housing crisis has been intensified by rising prices, limited supply and increasing difficulty in accessing affordable homes. In areas such as the south of Tenerife, the lack of available housing and the sharp rise in rents have already forced some workers to live in motorhomes.
Spain-wide average exceeds €48,000
Across Spain as a whole, the amount of savings required to buy a home is even higher. According to the Qualis Credit Risk study, buyers now need an average initial sum of €48,031, which is 9% more than the previous year.
This means that, in practical terms, a buyer must have already saved around 27% of the total purchase price before being able to complete the transaction. This percentage includes both the part of the property price that is not usually covered by the mortgage and the additional costs associated with the purchase.
Financial institutions generally finance up to 80% of the value of the property, which means the buyer must provide the remaining 20% from their own savings. However, this is only part of the problem. On top of the deposit, buyers must also cover taxes, notary fees, registration costs and other expenses linked to the transaction.
Balearic Islands and Madrid require the highest savings
The situation is even more demanding in some of Spain’s most expensive housing markets. In the Balearic Islands, buyers need an average of €87,126 in savings to buy a home, an increase of 10.6% compared with the previous year.
In Madrid, the initial amount required is also extremely high, at €82,952, after a year-on-year rise of 12%. These figures place both regions far above the national average and underline the widening gap between property prices and household savings capacity.
At the opposite end of the ranking are provinces where access to housing requires a much lower initial outlay. In Ciudad Real, buyers need around €19,803 in savings; in Jaén, the figure stands at €20,086; and in Zamora, at €21,621.
Taxes and costs absorb up to 31% of the money saved
One of the key points raised by the study is that a large part of the initial savings required does not go directly towards paying for the property itself.
According to Qualis Credit Risk, in many areas of Spain, between 30% and 31% of the money buyers need to have saved is used to cover taxes and transaction costs. These expenses include items such as property transfer tax, notary fees, registration fees and administrative costs.
This means that even people who have a stable salary and are able to meet their monthly mortgage repayments may still be excluded from the housing market because they do not have enough savings to cover the initial costs.
“There are thousands of potential buyers who, although financially capable of meeting the loan repayments, do not have sufficient savings to cover the deposit,” said Mariola Municio, Head of Customer Relations at Qualis Credit Risk.
Access to mortgages remains a major barrier
Qualis Credit Risk stresses that the current situation makes it necessary to facilitate access to mortgage credit, particularly in a context where the average age at which young people leave the family home remains high.
The company argues that the difficulty of accumulating the required initial savings is one of the main barriers preventing people from becoming homeowners. For many households, the monthly mortgage payment may be manageable, but saving tens of thousands of euros in advance is far more difficult, especially at a time of high rents and rising living costs.
The study was based on data from the Ministry of Housing on the average price per square metre in the fourth quarter of 2025. Qualis Credit Risk used a typical 80-square-metre second-hand property as the reference model for its calculations.
