Housing: Are young people as unhappy as we think? - Sarah Madden Reports

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman. On Newstalk, with Ciara.

Ciara Kelly (0:09)

Is rent dead money or is it an investment in your own development? That's the question we asked our reporter Sarah Madden to look into this week. The vast majority of Gen Z still live with mum and dad due to what they call financial reasons, but are they really better off staying at home to save, or should they stump up the rent and start adulting? Sarah Madden joins us now.

Sarah, tell us what you've learned.

Sarah Madden (0:31)

Well, you're right Ciara. Around 68% of young adults in Ireland, aged between 25 and 29, still live at home with mummy and daddy.

And more than six in 10 say it's mostly due to financial reasons. But I'm wondering if that's really the case Ciara, because yes, rents are high and the cost of living is getting higher. But we do see a variance in the figures of those still living at home, and that depends on where the young people are originally from. So, for example, 63.5% of 25 year olds in the Midland region are still living at home, whereas 82.4% of those from commuter counties like Kildare, Louth, Meath, Wicklow, Dublin, they are also staying at home. So there's quite a big difference there. So is it that young people from the Greater Dublin region can't afford to move out, or do they just not have the fire underneath them to do so? That's the question here. You know, we know 80% of this cohort are employed, and almost 3 in 5 have earned a degree or equivalent qualification. Median salary for 25-year-olds is roughly 2,230 a month. And though rents are high, I'm not saying they aren't. You can get a double in North County Dublin for around 840 euro at the moment. And if you're willing to share a room or move further out of the suburbs, you could find somewhere for about 600 or thereabouts.

So many of this cohort could on the face of it afford to move out, like their rural compatriots have done. But they have done so because of necessity.

SPEAKER_4 (1:59)

I'm 30 years of age. I'm living home with my mom at the moment. Trying to move out of this day state, it's unbelievable. It's just too expensive. Like the cost of living and everything is unbelievable. So it's very hard to try to find a place and move out. I'd love to, but I just can't afford it.

SPEAKER_5 (2:14)

At the moment, I'm at home. I'm 24 and I'm sharing a room with my 16-year-old sister. We have bunk beds. It's very overcrowded. I am in work while also sharing a room with a very younger sibling who were on completely different schedules. I don't think I'll be able to move out anytime soon.

SPEAKER_6 (2:36)

I love my mom. She's a wonderful woman, but she suffered with me for 26 years and I kind of want to give her a break. But anytime I go on to daft.ie, I kind of feel like I need like a valium to calm me down when I see the prices.

It is kind of crazy just how the market is these days. And just like the option of relocating kind of closer to Dublin where I'm working at the minute, it just kind of seems more impossible as the days go by, you know?

Sarah Madden (3:00)

And do you like living with your parents? Are they happy for you to be there?

SPEAKER_7 (3:04)

Yeah, I actually don't mind it. I like living at home. Not having the pressure rent to not have that. Like, yeah, it's nice living at home so you can do the extra things.

Yeah, you probably have more surplus funds at the end of the month, but I probably, yeah, I find other ways to spend it then because I think I'm up money at the end of the month and I just go shopping. Hence all the shopping bags.

SPEAKER_4 (3:28)

I have the privilege of having sort of like a granny flat, so it's separate to the main house. I think things would be very different if it was still the box bedroom in the main house. That would be a totally different ballgame and probably a lighter fire one to me to get out there quicker and into the whole rental zone, but it actually is also giving me the opportunity to save up and get an actual deposit together. So those are things that would take a much longer time if you're paying over half your wage on rent.

Ciara Kelly (3:54)

OK, interesting. Sarah, aren't they right, though, probably to stay at home if they can and if their parents are happy to put up with them?