The number of 25 to 40-year-olds living under one roof with father and/or mother, which remained more or less the same in 2022, has suddenly risen by 5 percent this year. As a result, one in ten people in their thirties and late twenties now (still) lives at home. The difference between men and women is large: almost a quarter of a million men between the ages of 25 and 40 live with (one of) their parents, compared to just over a hundred thousand women.
Research by lender Aegon showed just two weeks ago that young people who stay at home longer than desired lose their happiness in life. They postpone important steps in their lives. Peter Boelhouwer, professor of housing policy at TU Delft, can explain these new figures from Statistics Netherlands: “The number of houses sold fell last year, as did the supply of social rental homes.”
In 2013, it was still the intention that parents could help their children buy a house with the ‘jubelton’ – but that was hardly successful. In total, the number of young adults who (still) live at home has increased by almost a third in ten years, much faster than the total number of Dutch people in that age group.
The only years outside this trend are 2020 and 2021, when extremely low mortgage rates gave housing buyers a strong tailwind. And that jubilation? “It had hardly any effect on the number of first-time buyers on the housing market,” says Boelhouwer. “At most they could buy larger houses with it, or they needed less mortgage.”
Permanent contract
According to research by Statistics Netherlands this spring, the introduction of the student loan system in 2015 has also resulted in many young adults living at home longer. Many people in their twenties are still living with their parents by the time they start working, the same study showed. One in five young adults living at home already has a permanent contract.
And even though that research was about slightly younger people, the same mechanisms will apply to the age group just above that, thinks CBS demographer Ruben van Gaalen. “With people in their thirties, it only concerns smaller numbers of people living at home.”
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Live together
The growth in the number of cohabitants between the ages of 25 and 40 remains limited. In fact, the proportion of this age group that lives together – still by far the largest group in absolute numbers – has only decreased in recent years, from 64 to 60 percent.
Those cohabitants do cause a favorable domino effect on the housing market. Because if two people move on under one roof, at least one house will be left empty.
For example, 50,000 new homes were completed two years ago, but 56,000 homes became available as a result, according to Statistics Netherlands. Some of those houses are populated by people moving on, the rest by starters and ex-partners, for example. All in all, no less than 120,000 homes became available in 2021 thanks to those 50,000 new homes.
Temporary homes
Even more new construction can dampen the increase in the number of young adults living at home, says Boelhouwer. One problem: “In the short term, the number of homes completed per year will not increase.”
“More temporary homes can also be a solution, fewer procedures are required and they come straight from the factory.” What can also help, according to the professor, is limiting demand, such as by migrant workers. “They create a lot of competition.”
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