Number of adults living with their parents has risen

The number of UK adults aged 25-34 living with their parents could grow by nearly 500,000 from the current 1million-plus, as property prices continue to rise.

This emerged in a new study from Aviva Insurance.

Analysis shows that the number of adults in the 25-34 age group living with parents has risen by 37% over a 10-year period from 903,000 to 1.23million.

If this growth continues at the same rate over the next decade, the UK could see a further 452,000 people aged 25-34 living with parents in 10 years’ time.

The findings are supported by a separate study carried out by Aviva, examining the attitudes of 500 UK people aged 16-34 who live with their parents.

This research found that respondents expected to be 28 on average before they moved out - although one in 12 said they didn’t ever expect to leave their current residence.

A third of people aged 16-34 said they didn’t expect to ever own a home, and a fifth predicted they’d only own a home if and when they inherited one. Of those who felt they would own a property one day, 31 was the average age at which they expected to get on the housing ladder.

When it comes to reasons for living with parents, financial reasons are way ahead of any other considerations. Nearly two-thirds of adults living with parents say that they can’t afford to move out, while 48% say they live with family to save money.

But there are other practical reasons - nearly a quarter say they like being looked after, 14% say they are actually looking after their parents and one in 10 say they are ‘scared’ to move out.

Lindsey Rix, of Aviva, said: “The challenges of getting on the property ladder are well publicised, but it’s startling to see that one in three adults who live with parents expect never to own a property and further fifth believe the only way they will own a home is by inheriting one.

“However there is good news too, as the majority of ‘children’ in this situation are happy with this set-up, so in many cases there may be no desire to leave. If house prices continue to rise at their current rate, we can expect the proportion of adult children living with parents to grow even further."

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