Lisbon, Feb. 13, 2025 (Lusa) - Generation Z young people are moving out of their parents' homes later not for cultural reasons, but because of growing difficulties in accessing housing, concludes a research project on southern European countries.

"Young people staying at home with their parents is an increasingly common phenomenon, which reflects the growing difficulties in accessing housing for the new generations. Realising the desire to own a home or obtain a stable lease has become a major challenge, especially in southern European countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, which have very high numbers of young people aged between 18 and 34 living at home with their parents," according to the project coordinator's summary.

The preliminary results of the research project will be presented at a conference scheduled for Friday, between 09:00 and 13:00, at the University of Lisbon's Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences (ISCSP) (and also via zoom).

"It's not a question of these young people staying more and more at home with their parents, as if it were a problem, a cultural issue that was imagined even 20 years ago, 15 years ago, 10 years ago," stresses Romana Xerez, coordinator of the project “Housing4Z: Housing, Welfare and Inequalities in Southern Europe”, carried out by CAPP - the ISCSP's Centre for Administration and Public Policies.

However, the researcher emphasised to Lusa that this doesn't mean that the family doesn't "traditionally play a very important role in terms of promoting access to housing" in southern European countries.

"The family is, in fact, an element in the intergenerational transfer of this heritage," she points out.

However, what is happening is that "young people from the most disadvantaged groups and [...] even from the middle classes have less and less of this property wealth that passes between generations".

However, this is not the case in northern European countries, where young people can leave their parents' home earlier because “there are measures to support them” in this autonomisation.

Romana Xerez justifies the focus of the research on Generation Z, young people born between 1997 and 2012, because it is "a generation that has a very particular context, [...] of multiple crises, [...] of conflict in Europe, [...] of climate change, of the energy crisis".

These factors have led to changes in the economy, employment, and housing, resulting in intergenerational inequalities.

The younger generations - starting with the Millennium Generation, which precedes Generation Z - have begun to show "some disadvantages" compared to previous generations, disadvantages that "seem to be getting bigger and bigger", the researcher notes.

At the same time, the countries of Southern Europe have seen "a profound transformation in the housing market", she notes, emphasising, however, that "the problem of access to housing is not just a housing problem".

What's happening is that "the ratio of income to expenditure on housing is enormous and has been increasing", so "it's a wider problem" that involves the economy and labour.

"Owning your own home isn't just about having a house. It's also about having security, an extraordinarily important financial asset for the present and the future," he recalls.

To respond to the housing crisis, between 2018 and 2024, the countries analysed adopted 20 housing policies for young people aimed at renting and buying their own homes, says the project, adding that Portugal was the only one to implement specific measures for student accommodation.

Romana Xerez emphasised the "immense difficulty" researchers have in comparing housing policies for young people due to a lack of data.

The "Housing4Z" researchers - who interviewed young people about the restrictions and opportunities they encounter - are concerned about the changes underway.

The project - whose final results should be known in the coming months - aims to provide "scientific evidence" on how public and private policies can improve housing conditions and promote social justice for the younger generations.

SBR/ADB // ADB.

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