Daniel and Claudia are in their thirties, they live in Madrid and for years they combined their status as tenants with the dream of (one day) becoming owners of their own home. Every month they saved a little. And each month they got closer to their goal. The problem, as explained to The Countryit’s not just his bank account that was growing. So did the Price of housing. And his rent, which threatened to rise by 200 euros from one day to the next. To escape this impossible spiral, Daniel and Claudia talked to their families and got them to donate 30,000 euros. What is necessary for the entrance to an apartment.
The statistics of Spanish notaries show that yours is not an isolated case. On the contrary. Donations (especially cash) have become the lever that allows young people to access an impossible market.
What has happened? That notaries are encountering more and more intergenerational donations, capital that passes from grandparents, parents and uncles to the youngest members of the family to facilitate their access to housing.
The phenomenon is connected to the ‘Great Wealth Transfer’ and is not exactly new. The referees have been realizing this for some time now. Even so, the clarity with which it can be seen in the 2025 sectoral balance that has just been advanced is surprising. The Country. Its reading is resounding: in Spain, so many donations have never been processed as now, with housing on the rise.
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And what does the data say? That in 2025, notaries processed 225,317 donations. Not only is it the highest figure since (at least) 2011, far exceeding the 85,300 donations a decade ago; It also reflects an undeniable upward trend. After several years of stagnation, the number of donations grew by 15.2% between 2023 and 2024 and rose again by another 13% in 2025.
The data from the General Council of Notaries (CGN) includes all donations, without specifying how many correspond to property and how many correspond to cash or other types of assets; But the members themselves do not hesitate to relate this upward trend to the situation of the real estate market.
Are there more indicators? Yes. A few months ago the council already published a report in which it confirmed that intergenerational donations and inheritances were “boosting access to housing” for younger people. To be more precise, the group recalled that housing donations skyrocketed by almost 68% between 2017 and 2024 (from 32,623 to 54,735), while inherited properties increased by 20% during the same period (from 335,888 to 403,854).
Are they that frequent? Yes. If inherited and donated homes are added, they are equivalent to 64% of all sales transactions registered in 2024. Not only properties are transferred. A year ago, notaries already noted an increase in cash donations, especially amounts between 30,000 and 40,000 euros, although the range ranges from 10,000 to 300,000.
In fact, María Teresa Barea, spokesperson for the CGN, recently recognized that the majority of living inheritances she encounters are grants of liquidity, money that allows grandchildren, children and nephews to face the first payments required to buy a home and make the leap from tenant to owner.
Why this increase? For several reasons. One of the main ones is how complicated it is to get your head into the real estate market. The case of Daniel and Claudia is illustrative: not only does the square meter become more expensive, so do rents, nullifying the savings capacity of young people. According to a study by Grupo Mutua de Propietarios, 40% claim to have difficulties accessing housing, which explains (among other things) that in Spain the age of emancipation exceeds the European Union average by several years.
It doesn’t matter that the mortgage market has softened, the rise in housing prices (13% year-on-year) makes down payments an insurmountable barrier for many aspiring homeowners. Especially the younger ones. Hence their grandparents and parents come to their aid with donations.
“Many young people who could pay the mortgage payments are not able to afford the famous down payment and initial expenses,” agrees Barea. The latest statistics from the CGN also show that donations have grown (and at a good pace) in practically all the autonomous communities of Spain.
Are there more factors? Yes. One, fundamental one, is the changes in the distribution of wealth between population cohorts. What does it show us? Basically, young people accumulate less and less money, tipping the balance in favor of the elderly. The data from the Bank of Spain are eloquent: if in 2002 the population under 35 years of age accumulated close to 9% of Spain’s wealth, in 2022 that percentage had been reduced to 2.1%. In the case of those over 65 years of age, the trend was the opposite: during the same period they went from 25.4 to 39.2%.
Images | Febiyan (Unsplash) and General Council of Notaries
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