Back in the olden days (read, seven years ago) the path for most young people was fairly straightforward: leave school, go to university, get a good job, marry and buy a home, have kids and lament your lost youth while being comfortingly secure in your financial situation. Then, two things happened: the financial crash, and the housing crisis.

If you were at university during the financial crash, as I was, the effect for students was immediate. Graduate recruitment schemes dwindled, jobs fairs had noticeably fewer stalls and salaries for new graduates stalled – or fell.

Little has changed jobswise since: the Office for National Statistics recently announced that though wages have risen slightly, they are still below pre-crash levels.

What has risen, however, is house prices and rents. So students are paying more for accommodation at university, coming out in more debt into a lower-paid job, and then realising that house prices are so eye-watering that you’re more likely to own a unicorn than a home of your own before your 50th birthday.

But despite the media’s obsession with home ownership, many young people are deciding it just isn’t worth it, and adopting new approaches to accommodation and, consequently, their lives and careers.

Alternative homes

A scheme in the Netherlands has for two years been offering students free accommodation – if they live in old people’s homes. In exchange for 30 hours a month of socialising, the students pay no rent at all. As well as saving a huge wad of cash, they get to live in a very different community. The traditional residents form relationships with young people they’d never ordinarily live alongside, and the generational ghettoisation we often see in towns and cities is, in some small part, diminished.



Other models of housing are on the rise, in Britain and beyond. In Denmark in the 1960s, “co-housing” took off, where families shared communal space in adjoining homes and pooled childcare responsibilities and chores, lowering outgoings, and giving each family a little more freedom overall.

The trend is on the rise in Britain, slowly, and across Spain and Greece where graduates face 40%-60% unemployment rates. Sharing the cost of a home fell out of fashion for a while, but now many students see it as the only route into home ownership. They are also taken by the idea of enjoying a communal life, while maintaining privacy and a financial foothold in the market.

Linda, a writer in north London lives in a warehouse on an industrial estate with other artists and students who come and go. Moving to London, she’d considered a studio flat in Notting Hill, which was cheaper than most flats in London at £1,500 a month. But she’d have had little to spare after rent, food and bills. Then, she stumbled across the warehouse. She is able to save a considerable sum, while meeting many new people who use the considerable space for art projects, filming and political organising meetings.

Having seen her lifestyle, several of Linda’s friends in America are considering replicating it, buying a cheap warehouse on the east coast and offering free accommodation or low cheap rent in exchange for work on a scheme that trains young people in media and broadcasting skills.

If you can’t buy a home made of bricks in a welcoming neighbourhood, why not buy one made of wood, that moors wherever fancy takes you? Canal boat living is increasing in popularity across the UK, from Manchester to London and beyond. The allure is obvious: a boat can set you back under £50,000, yet you can still live close to the city centre. In Oxford, canal boats and mooring can still cost you around £100,000, in the most expensive city for housing, relative to income, in the UK.

Close to Tower Bridge in London, a friend has lived on a boat island, rented predominantly to artists, since graduation. Before cycling to his job at a nearby charity, he walks past boat shells turned into gardens, bike racks, and platforms for parties and events. Renting a flat in the same area would set him back at least four times what he pays.

Why buy – ever?

Vast numbers of young people on low salaries have given up on the idea of home ownership entirely, and as a result are embracing a completely different life plan. With an average house price in London just shy of £500,000, it’s reasonable to assume that, unless you have friends in high places, you’ll rent forever.

In cities like Berlin, renting is far more popular than in the UK, because of lower rents and better tenancy rights. As a result, increasing numbers of young Brits are moving to other European cities, and trying their hands at teaching jobs, learning foreign languages and becoming more mobile.

For those who realise they’re unlikely to be tied to one place by a financial interest in a plot of bricks and mortar, the future becomes a lot more mobile. If you know you’ll always rent, there’s no reason why you can’t up sticks and move to a foreign country – or change jobs every few years.

Studies suggest a fifth of young people will leave Britain for some period of time before they turn 40. Some will return, others will set up permanent homes abroad, many will become nomadic. Knowing it’s unlikely they’ll have a job for life if they’re not a doctor or lawyer, graduates are moving not just from job to job, but country to country.

Enjoy your income

For those who do stay, there’s also a sea change in behaviour and spending patterns. Baby boomers love to wail and moan that those born in the 80s and 90s complain they can’t afford a house but they all have iPhones and laptops – and there’s some truth in that.



Once you accept that you’ll never own a home, money takes on a different hue. Where’s the harm instead in enjoying life a little more? An extra holiday, or deciding to eat out more, won’t affect your chances of getting on the housing ladder, because those chances stand at zero anyway.



Instead, you can be more entrepreneurial and plough savings into business ideas, or spend more time on hobbies and interests outside of work. People who bought houses for £50,000 20 years ago, and are now sitting on equity in excess of a million, may witter on about Generation X’s penchant for fancy coffee, but their lives and financial situations are completely different.

Every student can tell you how grim the housing market looks for someone under 30: but being forced to make the best of a bad situation can lead to many other opportunities. Our lives may take a very different path as a result, but they may not necessarily be worse.

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