Flipping the friction – how younger people are compensating for a world of constraints

With home ownership moving ever further out of reach for very many younger people, research from cultural strategy agency Bricolage suggests they are increasingly pursuing other forms of aspirational success instead.

The finding is part of an annual deep dive the agency takes, assessing emerging cultural shifts of interest to brands.

One of the biggest issues young people face is the prohibitive cost of housing, both to buy and to rent, leaving many stranded in the family home much later than in previous generations. Bricolage wanted to see how they are coping.

“We wanted to explore the topic in a different way to the headlines and articles we’re always reading,” explains Niamh Daly, a senior research executive with Bricolage, who, at 25 and “still living in her childhood bedroom”, experiences this phenomenon firsthand.

“We really wanted to find out how are young people are adapting to this massive cultural change, living as an adult without the key traditional milestone that is owning your own home,” she explains.

Research from the Central Statistics Office shows that, in 1991, the average age of home ownership was 26. By 2024 it was 40.

For a country where home ownership is, including for historical reasons, ingrained in our cultural psyche, that’s a seismic shift.

One consequence has been the rise in non-typical housing solutions, including modular homes in parents’ back gardens. There is also, according to Viv Chambers, managing director of Bricolage, growing interest in cooperative housing and co-living spaces, solutions which are more developed in other countries.

Bricolage surveyed more than 300 people aged between 20 and 40. It found that 67 per cent of respondents feel behind where they expected to be in life, with many either living with their parents into their 20s and 30s or renting for longer than expected.

“They have a career, relationships, and are financially independent. They are independent in other ways, just not this one thing,” says Daly.

Independence “just looks different now”, she explains. “People are finding their own way to define adulthood. They are rewriting the script.”

One of the ways this shows up is in travel, which is increasingly viewed as a better investment in their lives than trying to save for an unobtainable house deposit.

“It’s not a new thing that people are doing, but we think there is a new significance to it in that travel can become a marker of progress in itself,” says Daly.

“Back in the day travel was something you did before the next stage of adulthood. You travelled, you came home, settled down, bought a house and started a family. It sat within a predictable sequence and it gave you a sense of having moved forward with your life. Now it’s tied to a certain cultural capital. It’s an achievement in its own right,” she says.

A more galling feature for many however is the rise of what she calls the “inheritocracy”.

“More and more the difference between being able to buy and not being able to buy isn’t simply how disciplined you are (as a saver), it’s the circumstances you start with,” she says.

“Family wealth increasingly determines who can get on to that property ladder and when.”

Recent research found that at least 70 per cent of Dublin house buyers are in receipt of parental gifts averaging between €27,000 and €60,000. At the same time, Bricolage’s own survey found 54 per cent of those living at home are paying rent to their parents, typically between €200 and €450.

One of the biggest consequences of the housing unaffordability crisis is the “staggering brain drain out of this country,” points out Chambers, driven “to achieve progress somewhere else”.

This new reality has resulted in the negotiation of new boundaries at home, and the rise of what Bricolage calls “family flatmates”. It includes everything from grocery shopping and utility bills to privacy.

When it comes to dating, younger people are tiring of apps and turning instead to real life (IRL) events, says Daly. Savvy brands are joining in, with even dating apps themselves organising IRL events such as romance run clubs, speed dating dinners and other social events.

“Young people are having more real-world connection, but having less private space to fit that into,” she says.

What also emerged was the rise of ‘moneymaxxing’. Younger people are becoming smarter with money and keen to make each cent work harder, including through investing.

One brand which has successfully adapted to the circumstances facing today’s younger people is Lego, which has introduced floral arrangement sets aimed at exactly this age cohort, to great success. Ikea’s “any space will do” campaigns based on making the most of small spaces is a great example of a brand that is addressing the challenges facing this age group head on, and supporting them.

Pubs have always provided a ‘third space’ but good ones are leaning into this new reality too, providing more activities and opportunities for connection, from games nights and gigs to quizzes and talks.

A new crop of cinemas is emerging which provide a more rounded, immersive social experience. Cult US independent film and TV studio A24’s AAA24 ten euro per month membership programme “is selling belonging, not just movies” says Chambers.

This loosening of attachment to ownership may be part of the reason for the growing popularity of clothing resale sites Vinted and DePop: “Clothing is passing through your hands. You’re borrowing it for a while and then you are recirculating it into the economy,” he adds, another example of how the idea of ownership is shifting and giving rise to new “compensatory cultures” in the face of constraints.

“People reframe loss or limitation as aspiration. What we are hearing now is that ownership is not available to us, therefore we will pursue other forms of aspirational success,” he says. “It’s about ‘I don’t need to own a car. Access and mobility is what I need’.”

All of this has profound implications for the various brands it works with, both as an opportunity and a threat. “But I think the sensible companies and clients will be thinking about this as an opportunity,” he says.

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