Young people and housing: identifying the key issues

Abstract

The housing experiences of young people are a contemporary global concern, with the exacerbation of young people's housing problems in many countries reported widely in the media and raising important policy questions. In response, this special issue of the International Journal of Housing Policy presents new empirical research from Europe and East Asia and seeks to identify key areas for improvement in national housing policies. This editorial summarises the main housing issues identified in the special issue articles and identifies the emergence of two cross-cutting policy challenges. The first challenge is to ensure all young people have an equal opportunity to leave the family home and live independently. This will require a much greater awareness of the political, economic and cultural forces restricting young people's transitions. The second key policy challenge is to improve the suitability and availability of housing for young people, with studies in this special issue specifically pointing towards an improved private rented sector and further provision of shared housing. Articles in this special issue indicate that a failure to respond to these significant housing policy challenges will have wide reaching social and economic consequences.

A fine balance: A review of shared housing among young adults

“…In much of the Western world shared housing, or flatting, is a cost effective accommodation option for young adults facing economic difficulties (Aassve, Cottini, & Vitali, ; Mackie, ). The lifestyle has been popularised in US based TV shows such as Friends, Big Bang Theory, and Super Fun Night , where shared households are represented as sources of fun, companionship and mutual support in coping with the vicissitudes of daily life.…”

“…Such anecdotes can challenge notions of shared households as functional. Given the popularity of shared housing (Mackie, ) the literature is surprisingly limited, apart from Heath and Cleaver's () seminal study in the UK and a couple of studies in Australia (McNamara & Connell, ; Natalier, ). Due to resurgence in research recently in both the UK (Heath, Davies, Edwards & Scicluna, ) and New Zealand (Clark, Tuffin, Frewin, & Bowker, , ), the area is experiencing a period of reinvigoration.…”

For the Benefit of Everyone? : Explaining the Significance of Swedish Public Housing for Urban Housing Inequality

“…Sofa-surfing at friends' apartments, subletting with insecure conditions and staying involuntarily with parents all appear to be common experiences from all over Europe, which has made the housing opportunities of youth and young adults a question of increasing concern also for academics (See, e.g., Mackie, 2016).…”

“…While the discussion of housing inequality in terms of ownership and wealth accumulation might be argued as both a result of -and a reproduction of -the increasingly dominating view on housing in terms of a financial asset , such a perspective pinpoints the urgency of discussing the intergenerational dimension of housing inequality; the situation of youth and young adults on the housing markets. The research body on the housing opportunities for this group has amplified during the last decade (See, e.g., Mackie [2016] for an overview of key issues).…”

The convergence, divergence and changing geography of regulation in the UK's private rented sector

“…Longer tenancies with stronger protections from eviction are more common in Western European countries, highlighting that tenants in the PRS in the UK have been exposed to more insecure and short-term forms of renting than in other countries, such as Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands (O'Sullivan & De Decker, 2007). Overcoming this insecurity has been seen as key to improving the suitability and desirability of the sector in the UK, particularly for those lacking economic resources (Mackie, 2016). As the analysis that follows will show, tenure security is an area of increasing policy divergence in the UK.…”