Do you have adult children living at home? If so, you’re certainly not alone.

According to the latest census data, at least 620,000 more grown-up children are now living with their parents, compared with a decade ago.

Despite this data being collected during the pandemic and its associated lockdowns, the rise in the number of adults living with their parents appears to be a continuing trend, rather than as a result of Covid.

Significant house price and rental price growth across the country has had a major part to play, with young people finding it harder than ever to take their first step onto the housing ladder.

The number of families with adult children at home increased in every region of England and Wales in the 10-year period, with the fastest rise in London, at 24.5 per cent. This is around twice the increase seen across all other English regions combined and around five times the increase seen in Wales.

Tower Hamlets has had the largest increase (46.1 per cent), which is no surprise given that its house price to income ratio is 14:1.

Other London locations which have seen significant rises include Barking and Dagenham, Newham, Southwark, and Lambeth, which all experienced house price growth of over 80 per cent between the censuses, significantly above both the London average of 71.6 per cent and England average of 45.7 per cent.

These boroughs have simultaneously all failed to deliver enough new homes in relation to their housing need. Since 2018, Barking and Dagenham had an average undersupply of -58.5 per cent, while Lambeth was at -46.2 per cent and Southwark at -43.2 per cent below what they required as calculated by the standard method.

The capital has also seen some of the highest rental growth since March 2021.

At the other end of the spectrum, local authorities that have seen falls in the number of adult children living at home tend to be in the North or Wales. They all have lower house price to income ratios than the England average of 8:1; have mostly seen much lower house price growth between the censuses; and have seen generally lower than average rental growth.

Many adult children that have been able to fly the nest have been fortunate enough to receive assistance from family. Gifts and loans from the Bank of Mum & Dad (BOMAD) totalled £8.8 billion in 2022, according to our latest research. This amount has increased by almost £4 billion since 2019 as a result of a more stringent mortgage market and higher deposit requirements.

In total, 170,000 first-time buyers had family assistance in getting their mortgage in 2022, accounting for around 46 per cent of all mortgaged first-time buyers.

This number is expected to jump to 61 per cent in 2023, a figure not seen since before Help to Buy was introduced, meaning that just two in five first-time buyers are likely to access the market without any help.

These affordability pressures emphasise the continued need to build many more new and affordable homes for first-time buyers, particularly as the Government’s Help to Buy scheme has come to an end.

Further information

Contact Toby Parsloe