There are 3.3 million young adults in the UK living with their parents and of these 42% pay no rent to their parents. On average these 1.37m young people are saving themselves £12,450 a year – that’s the average cost of renting and living in a one bedroom flat across the UK.
By living at home and not paying their parents anything, these 18-34 year olds aren’t just saving themselves the cost of renting their own room or flat, they are also saving paying for Council Tax, utilities, broadband, food and even cleaning products. The cost saving of living with your parents breaks down as follows:
Rent:
Monthly Cost Saved: £528
Annual cost saved: £6,337
Council Tax:
Monthly Cost Saved: £61.42
Annual cost saved: £737.03
Food:
Monthly Cost Saved: £246.13
Annual cost saved: £2,953.60
Other living costs (inc utilities):
Monthly Cost Saved: £201.89
Annual cost saved: £2,422.78
Total:
Monthly Cost Saved: £1,037
Annual cost saved: £12,450
Given the scale of the cost savings that can be made by living at home, it comes as no surprise that 35% of young people living with their parents questioned for thinkmoney said that they couldn’t afford to rent a place and a further 17% said that they couldn’t afford to buy. Meanwhile 27% said they were using the time spent living with their parents as a chance to save for a deposit.
Whilst the average saving made by living at home is £12,450, the cost of living on your own varies considerably around the UK.
Unsurprisingly, the cost of moving into a first flat in London is the most expensive in the UK, as rent in the capital is substantially higher than the UK average, although council tax is marginally lower. The average cost of living alone in the city for a year was found to be a staggering £21,657.
-The cheapest place to move out (not including Scotland and Ireland) is Teeside at an average annual cost of £10,767
-The most expensive place in the UK (excluding London) is Brighton at an average annual cost of £16,873
-The cheapest London borough to live in as a single person is Bexley at an average annual cost of £14,226.17
-The most expensive London borough to live in on your own is Chelsea at an average annual cost of £39,113.77 – nearly four times’ more than it costs to live in Teeside.
Ian Williams, spokesman for thinkmoney, says: “Living on your own requires an average of over £13,000 a year of pre-tax income. Given this, it is no surprise that so many young people are voting with their feet and choosing to live at home with their parents. This is especially true when you take into account that four in ten young adults living with their parents don’t pay any rent either, and in most cases enjoy having their parents cook, clean and do their laundry as fringe benefits!”
