Seven in ten Europeans can’t afford 75 square metres. Not outright, not with a mortgage, not even with thirty years to pay it off. That’s the finding from a new study by the Vienna University of Technology, and no, we didn’t need a study to tell us that, but it’s always nice when someone else says it first.
It gets worse. Renting is turning into just as much of a fantasy: four in ten Europeans are now handing over a third of their household income just to stay housed.
Cyprus isn’t exactly bucking the trend either. One in three workers here takes home less than €1,500 a month, gross.
Do the maths and it stops being funny fast. A 75-square-metre flat in Nicosia will run you about €180,000. In Limassol, €345,000. Can’t stretch to that? Renting won’t save you: around €780 a month in Nicosia, closer to €1,700 in Limassol.
Seventy-five square metres. That’s the middle class’s ceiling now, and even that’s out of reach. Funny, considering how often “supporting the middle class” gets trotted out in every manifesto and every government programme. In reality, the middle class is holding itself together with instalment plans, maxed-out credit cards, and whatever patience it’s got left.
Keep this up and soon we won’t even be able to afford a tent.
