First time buyers flee their parents’ home towns… and prying eyes
Gone are the days when young buyers wanted to live near their parents, with many choosing to live 20 miles away - presumably to engage in the sort of wall banging featured in the Zoopla ads.
If the Zoopla ‘wall banging’ ads are anything to go by, young first time buyers are keen to buy their own home so they can escape the prying eyes of parents and live a more liberal lifestyle.
And new research by the portal appears to back this up.
In-depth surveys among 2,000 young first time buyers found that just over three quarters were not planning to live in the same locale as their parents and that 45% planned to move at least 20 miles away.
But this research reveals a significant disconnect among offspring; most wanted to live near their family, but few had any intention of doing it.
Just 8% had bought their first home within a mile of their parents, 14% up to three miles away and 11% up to five miles away.
The research also backs up the view that people are more community orientated in the north. House hunters in the North West were the most likely to buy their first home close to where they grew up, with 14% getting onto the property ladder within a mile of their parents’ house.
In London, where first-time buyers have long faced challenges around stretched affordability, 53% buy their first home over 20 miles away from their parents’ house.
“When it comes to getting on the ladder, our research reveals that despite a desire to be close to family, buying in the same area as your parents for many people appears to be a thing of the past,” says Zoopla spokesperson Richard Houston.
“Whether it’s due to constraints around affordability, moving for employment opportunities or even if they simply want to start out on their own, first-time buyers are choosing to flee the nest.”
Read more about first time buyers.
