Nearly 105,000 young adults have continued to live under their parents’ roof rather than rent since 2015, according to Hamptons. Annabel Dixon digs into the estate agent’s latest research.
You’ve no doubt heard of the so-called Bank of Mum and Dad, allegedly one of the biggest property lenders in the country. Well there’s another catchphrase in town: the Hotel of Mum and Dad.
It’ll be a familiar concept to some parents already — and now Hamptons has put fresh figures to it.
According to the estate agent, the share of young adults flying the nest has been falling ‘steadily’ in recent years. Nearly 105,000 would-be tenants have stayed in their family home instead of moving into a rental home since 2015.
First-time renters made up just 4.6% of new tenancies in Great Britain during the first five months of this year, down from 6.1% in 2015.
It’s not hard to see why young adults might be reluctant to leave the family home (and I’m not just referring to the potential prospect of parents shouldering household chores).
£1,000-a-month savings going towards house deposits as young people jump straight to buying
First-time renters forked out an average of £1,024 each month on their new rental home so far this year. Bear in mind that 10 years ago, this monthly cost stood at an average of £642.
To put this another way, young adults are set to save £12,290 by continuing to live rent-free with parents this year alone, according to Hamptons. That sum could come in pretty handy; put it all aside and within a couple of years they won’t be far short of a 10% deposit for the £285,000 average house price in the UK.
They also face a well-reported shortage of rental homes on the market – which has helped to fuel these soaring rents. Zoopla reckons there’s a third fewer homes available to rent than the long run average. Competition out there to bag the perfect rental home is tough.
‘Around 105k missing renters are relying on the hotel of Mum and Dad,’ says Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons.
‘The number of first-time renters has been steadily falling since 2015, pushed down by the spiralling cost of living and record-breaking rental growth which has stretched affordability to the edge of its limits.
‘Young adults are staying at home for longer in order to save up, with some skipping the rental market entirely and going on to purchase a home instead.’
Good news for those still in the rental market
Unsurprisingly, young people in the more expensive corners are less likely to branch out. Those flying the nest made up 3.7% of all renters in the south of England so far this year, compared with 5.4% in the north of England, Hamptons research shows.
Still, London bucked the trend. Despite double-digit rental growth, the share of renters leaving the family home to rent in the Big Smoke has climbed from 2.5% in 2022 to 3.2% so far this year. This suggests that young people are moving back post-pandemic to be closer to offices and the general bright lights of the city.
Interestingly though, Hamptons reveals that affordability at a national level has actually improved for young adults thanks to rising wages.
According to the estate agent’s analysis of ONS data, the typical pre-tax income of an 18-24 year old in the UK has jumped 42% since 2015. It means that the average young adult has spent 43% of their pre-tax salary on renting a room so far this year, down from 49% in 2015.
And Beveridge has further good news for would-be renters (and no doubt, their parents too), pointing out that ‘rental growth is starting to cool, and we expect that to continue throughout the remainder of the year’.
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