There are many reasons demand is increasing, all good.
In the past a typical housing unit would be husband, wife, two kids. A 3 bed house. Divorce rates are higher now (better to be divorced than in an unhappy marriage - so that's good), so you instead you have divorced husband and one or two bedrooms for shared custody of kids, and divorced wife and one or two bedrooms for shared custody of kids
Thus what used to be demand for a single 3 bed house is now demand for two 3 bed houses, with no change in requirements
You are also right about cities, and not just any specific city. If you were born in London and get a job in Cambridge because you want to work for Astra Zenneca for example, that's a good thing. Having workforce mobility is a good thing, just because you are the son of a farmer doesn't mean you should be destined to be a farmer. You've also got people meeting and marrying people from outside their immediate geographic area, at least one of them will have to move.
There's then the social appeal of cities in general -- if you're the "only gay in the village" that's a miserable life. If you live in a city there's far more choice.
"living with parents" is on the increase, despite any "stigma".
> The number of families in England and Wales with adult children living with their parents rose 13.6% between the 2011 Census and Census 2021 to nearly 3.8 million.
Adults living with parents is not a good thing, and in the west it never has been. Adults should be independent, and learn to fly the nest and build their own lives.
Then you've got massive external immigration. As well as people moving from country and older mining towns, you have massive inward migration (in the UK this has reached an increase of about 1% population increase per year). This is a good thing for the economy (more workers, more productivity, more taxes), but comes with other issues - including more demand for housing.
They say that over 97.5% of homes in London are in primary residential use, i.e not airbnb, not second home, not empty all year except for some wealthy oligarch coming for a couple of weeks.
The numbers might be slightly off as people are not reporting their use of airbnb, but
Claims just 50,000 airbnb homes in London, which is just 1.3% of the housing stock in London (and that 50k number includes those which are primary residential use but the current occupant moves out for a week if they get someone)
In the past a typical housing unit would be husband, wife, two kids. A 3 bed house. Divorce rates are higher now (better to be divorced than in an unhappy marriage - so that's good), so you instead you have divorced husband and one or two bedrooms for shared custody of kids, and divorced wife and one or two bedrooms for shared custody of kids
Thus what used to be demand for a single 3 bed house is now demand for two 3 bed houses, with no change in requirements
You are also right about cities, and not just any specific city. If you were born in London and get a job in Cambridge because you want to work for Astra Zenneca for example, that's a good thing. Having workforce mobility is a good thing, just because you are the son of a farmer doesn't mean you should be destined to be a farmer. You've also got people meeting and marrying people from outside their immediate geographic area, at least one of them will have to move.
There's then the social appeal of cities in general -- if you're the "only gay in the village" that's a miserable life. If you live in a city there's far more choice.
"living with parents" is on the increase, despite any "stigma".
> The number of families in England and Wales with adult children living with their parents rose 13.6% between the 2011 Census and Census 2021 to nearly 3.8 million.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populati...
Adults living with parents is not a good thing, and in the west it never has been. Adults should be independent, and learn to fly the nest and build their own lives.
Then you've got massive external immigration. As well as people moving from country and older mining towns, you have massive inward migration (in the UK this has reached an increase of about 1% population increase per year). This is a good thing for the economy (more workers, more productivity, more taxes), but comes with other issues - including more demand for housing.