One in ten over-25s lives with parents: many more men than women

Research by lender Aegon showed 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 housing.”

In 2013, it was still intended that parents could use the ‘jubilee’ to help their children buy a house – but that has hardly succeeded. In total, the number of young adults (still) living 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 that fall outside that trend are 2020 and 2021, when extremely low mortgage rates gave buyers in the housing market a strong tailwind. What about that jubilee? “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.”

According to research by Statistics Netherlands this spring, the introduction of the student loan system in 2015 also ensured that many young adults continued to live at home for longer. By the time they start working, many people in their twenties are still living with their parents, the same study found. One in five young adults living at home already has a permanent contract.

And even if that research was about slightly younger people, the same mechanisms will apply to the age group just above, thinks CBS demographer Ruben van Gaalen. “For people in their thirties, it’s only about smaller numbers of people living at home.”

Click on the banner below to see how many men and women aged 25 to 40 live in your municipality with their parents:

The growth in the number of cohabitants between the ages of 25 and 40 remains limited. In fact, the proportion of that age group living together – still by far the largest group in absolute numbers – has only decreased in recent years, from 64 to 60 percent.

These cohabitants do cause a positive domino effect on the housing market. Because if two people continue under one roof, at least one house will be left empty.

Two years ago, for example, 50,000 new homes were completed, but 56,000 homes became available as a result, according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Some of these houses are populated by people moving on, the rest by, for example, starters and ex-partners. All in all, thanks to those 2021,50 new homes, no less than 000,120 homes became available in 000.

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 housing can also be a solution, fewer procedures are needed and they come straight out of the factory.” According to the professor, what can also help is limiting demand, such as by migrant workers. “They create a lot of competition.”