Are you one of the many young adults still living at home?

Just over a quarter of parents have at least one grown child living with them at home, a study reveals today. This illustrates the impact of high property prices and prohibitive fees and deposits demanded by landlords. The average cost of homes in parts of London is more than £1million while the cost of renting nationally has reached an average of £740 a month. Many parents said their children simply cannot afford to move on. The Office for National Statistics says around three million adults between the ages of 20 and 34 do not have a place of their own, 20 per cent more than in 1997.

The report, based on a poll of 1,176 parents with children aged 21 to 40, found that 27 per cent lived with their offspring.

Having an adult child at home could have an adverse effect with 23 per cent saying it has ‘caused them stress’, 18 per cent that it has triggered family arguments and eight per cent that it has caused them to fall into debt.

The Government’s latest Housing Survey highlighted how home ownership has dropped to its lowest level since the 1980s. At its peak in 2003, 71 per cent of householders were ‘owner occupiers’. Today this is just 65.3 per cent.

Of the 14.4million homeowners in England, the largest number are people aged 65 and over, equal to a record 30 per cent of the total. There are 4.3million homeowners in this age group, more than a million higher than the total for any other.