Roll the clock back 20 years and any self-respecting late 20/early 30 something would never say on their first date that they lived with their mum and dad. It was seen as a sign of immaturity being tied to your mother’s apron strings as a failure to leave the family home. Yet over these last two decades, the age of leaving home has been increasing steadily from 20 years and 11 months in the late 1990’s to 22 years and 7 months today.
However,
as with all the stats, the devil is in the detail. Although the age of leaving home
has only risen by 8% between 1997 and today, those that didn’t leave home in
their early 20’s tended to stay much, much longer.
In 1997, 11.26% of 25yo to 34yo still lived at home with
their parents,
yet last year that had risen to 15.74%, an increase of
391,000
‘stay at home’ Millennials
However,
before we deride these Millennials for still being tied to their mother’s apron
strings, I would say those very same Millennials (the mid 20’s to 30-year olds)
have been pragmatic, being attracted to sacrificing independence in order to
achieve their long-term life goals as they have seen rents rise and an
inability to save for the mortgage deposit. All of this has seen the first-time
buyer levels in this millennial age range rise for the last three years … so
good news for everyone!
However,
is all that about to change?
Just as mum
and dads in Huddersfield had thought their late 20 something/early 30 something
offspring had flown the nest, Covid-19 has blown some Huddersfield ‘chickadees’
back into the nest. Back in March, the lockdown saw many Millennials flee the
big UK cities, with their constrained and poky shared HMO’s and flat shares, swapping
their city centre private rented home for their parents’ Huddersfield home.
Yet with lockdown
lessening, it isn’t just remote workers who are unenthusiastic and disinclined to
return to the big cities (fearful of a second lockdown) — many of these Coronavirus
blow-ins are deciding to stay put too! A recent YouGov poll asked Millennials
of private rented homes what their plans were and 1 in 6 tenants planned to
hand their notice in on their rented home and fly back to the nest of mum and dad.
The advantages are quite plain, especially as it could enable them to save for
a deposit to buy their future home.
There are 69,144 households in Huddersfield,
made up of 22,989
single person households and 40,902 family
households
(the
remainder being made up of shared houses etc.)
Yet how many of those Huddersfield family households had non-dependent
children before Covid-19?
6,001
Huddersfield households have children
that
haven’t flown the nest
That’s 14.67% of Huddersfield families whose kids are still to
leave home … and it’s only going to get worse!
So, what does this mean for Huddersfield homeowners and Huddersfield
landlords?
It will mean that Huddersfield parents and their children will get
to know each other better, build stronger relationships and it will enable
their children, if they are wise, to save for their deposit for their first
home purchase - who knows maybe in Huddersfield, as working from home could
become the norm.
Also, with remote working, many tenants are looking for properties
with bigger gardens which could translate into greater demand for property with
bigger gardens? It will also change the property needs of those Huddersfield
parents and potentially could mean instead of those parents moving down market,
they could end up staying longer or moving up market?
Now of course these polls could be a load of hot air? What I do
know is that this thing has not played out yet and only time will tell if this
will make a concrete change to the way people live, rent and buy property.
These are interesting times and thank you for reading this. Do let
me know your thoughts on this matter.
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