Living without paying a mortgage, ‘house hacking’ arrives in Spain: what it is and how it works exactly

Finding ways to make extra money and exploit your properties is one of the keys to achieving financial freedom and having passive income.

He house hacking This is one of the most common methods used in recent years to obtain extra money. This practice takes several things into account. On the one hand, when investing in a house for this purpose, it is important that it is subdivided into two or that, at least, it is easy to do this work.

Having this, the objective is live in one part of the house and rent the otherwhich is independent. Similarly, the term can also be used in the case of a house or apartment with several rooms that can be rented.

Can you live for free?

The objective of the house hacking is that rental incomes can reach pay all expenses related to the house and even make a profit. While it is true that renting out rooms alone is more complicated, it can be an income that covers a good part of the expenses and allows you to pay a mortgage comfortably.

This practice is not very common in Spain yet, but it is gaining more and more momentum and is already very popular in other European countries, although it is most popular in the United States.

It is necessary to make a small change in mentality and look at the purchase of a home for personal use as well an investment and a business. One option is even to buy a house that will be your residence in the future, rent it out to pay the mortgage and live in a cheaper rental house. Obviously, this requires personal effort, but it is worth it.

Another advantage is that this strategy will allow you to increase your borrowing capacity so you can buy other properties as an investment to rent out.

Holiday rentals

The most popular way to rent this type of housing is through Airbnb. The platform allows you to allows seasonal rentalsso you don’t have to give up your privacy completely, if you only rent rooms.

It is also a perfect way to earn extra income sporadically, for example, only in summer if you live in a tourist area where many people go on vacation.

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When making this effort, it must be considered that housing is one of the biggest monthly expenses and in this way it can become self-financing. And yes, buying a smaller house is certainly cheaper, but it may be better to invest a little more and be able to generate this income.

In addition, in the case of young people, sharing a house is already common due to the price of housing, so they are more accustomed to this disadvantage, which, in this practice, translates into extra income.

Practical example

If a 3-bedroom apartment costs 220,000 euros, the monthly rent is 500 euros for 30 years. Depending on the city and the features, the rent for the remaining two rooms could reach 700 euros.

In this way, you would not only pay the monthly mortgage payment, but also other expenses such as taxes derived from the home such as community fees, utilities or property tax.

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Tags: Airbnb, Housing, Mortgages, Money, Real Estate Market, Rent