The number of adults in the UK aged 25 to 34 and living with their parents has increased by 37% over the last decade, and it’s only forecast to rise even more.
An analysis from Aviva Insurance shows that the number of adults in this age bracket still living at home has increased from 903,000 to 1.23 million within ten years.
It could take Generation Rent up to 59 years to make it onto the property ladder
As a forecast for the future, the report suggests that, if the same pace is kept up over the next decade, an additional 452,000 people aged 25 to 34 will be living with their parents.
However, this new trend of multi-generational households isn’t necessarily the preferred choice of many. The report points out that house prices have, over the same period of time, increased by 45% for first-time buyers.
Buying a home is regarded one of the biggest challenges for many in the Aviva study. More than 30% of those aged 16 to 34 stated that they never expected to ever own their home, 21% assumed they would only own half of one when they inherit it.
For those who were still hopeful to own their home one day, the average age of when they will do so was 31 years.
At the same time, 47% of those currently residing at the Hotel of Mum and Dad said they were “very happy” with the situation. Only 16% said their circumstance were making them unhappy. These numbers change when only looking at the older bracket of those aged 30 to 34 years old. Here, the number of those describing themselves as “very happy” drops to 31% whilst “unhappy” increases to 28%.
When asked why they were living with parents, financial reasons was the top answer with 62% explaining they wouldn’t be able to move out and 48% saying they were living with their family to save some money.
Lindsey Rix is the managing director for personal lines at Aviva General Insurance and explained the findings in the report:
“The challenges of getting on the property ladder are well publicised, but it’s startling to see that one in three adults who live with parents expect never to own a property and further fifth believe the only way they will own a home is by inheriting one.
If house prices continue to rise at their current rate, we can expect the proportion of adult children living with parents to grow even further.”
