Cost of living sees young people in Wales living back at home

Soaring living costs are forcing young professionals in Wales to move home to their parents.

High real estate prices have discouraged many from climbing the first rung of the real estate ladder.

But now they are also being priced out by the rental market.

Fuel and food costs leave many with very little of their wages left over to save or pay rent and bills.

Jasleen Grewal-Dhoot worked two jobs while studying for her university degree and then moved home to save for her own apartment.

She works full time as an Accountant Apprentice in Cardiff and keeps to a tight budget.

But she is one of many young people in Wales who say they can’t afford rent as the cost of living continues to rise.

“Because I’m an apprentice, we don’t have much to do. I try to stick to a budget, I live at home to save, I pay my mom’s bills — I pay the vet bills for my dog, my car,” Jasleen said.

“My mom wants me to save but it’s hard because I have a pretty low wage but I will contribute and pay for my grocery shopping.

“I’m 24 and have a full-time job but I can’t afford to actually move out, I can’t even afford the rent in Cardiff.”

Jasleen, an athlete and current Miss Wales finalist, said she struggles to cope with unexpected expenses and at the end of each month she doesn’t have much money left over.

“Someone backed into my car last week and it was a month’s wages gone,” she said.

“If I didn’t live at home I don’t know what I would do as I would be paying rent and paying bills.”

Actress Emma Kaler, who graduated last June, lives in Cardiff with her parents.

“I’m really realizing how expensive life is now, as a young professional,” she said.

“Meeting people at university and seeing people from different backgrounds who don’t have a support system or base really made me appreciate having a base.

“I can understand what it’s like to be a young person in this climate, how it feels impossible to climb the ladder in a certain way and actually have your independence because it’s just so expensive.”

Her father Dal Kaler said: “We actually love that Emma is home. But at her age she needs her own independence.

“We actually find it a bit difficult … let alone youngsters who are just getting into the job. I don’t know how some of them can afford to live without a support network around them.”

Hope Mbwembwe, 19, is studying medical pharmacology at Swansea University.

She is enjoying student life now that Covid restrictions have been eased but still lives at home with her mum Sibu.

She said the cost of living meant she wouldn’t be moving out any time soon.

“Luckily I don’t pay rent, but I pay my phone bill and anything else I want to pay for, so I pay extra stuff like Netflix or Amazon Prime,” she said.

“I’ve thought about it [moving out]but obviously because of the rent and how much it is, I’m a bit skeptical.”

Hope’s mother Sibu Mbwembwe, the former chief executive of the African Community Center in Swansea, said young people face difficult decisions about their future.

“Everyone was looking forward to getting back to normal [after Covid restrictions ended]but then normality is eating out, meeting friends and that’s not possible now because the cost of living has gone up,” she said.

“Young people have been complaining – there are people who are going to uni now in September and one of them I know had a conversation about moving away from home and he was really worried about how he was going to do it would create because it’s really expensive at first without the cost of living increasing.

“Now it’s much worse, he wishes he had stayed at home. If he had known things would come to the way they are now, if he hadn’t gone to uni, he would have stayed at home because he didn’t have this added responsibility of having to pay for rent and food.

“A lot of these young people worry about that.”

Principality Building Society chief financial officer Tom Denman said they had seen a slowdown in activity.

“We’re seeing house price action in the first quarter of this year is about 4% slower than in previous quarters, which could be a sign things are slowing down a bit,” he said.

“In the last quarter or so, we’ve seen demand for larger properties slow down and demand for apartments started to pick up. I expect that the sales of apartments will continue in the near future.”

He added that the average Welsh house price had been taken to record levels, but that was “probably no different than the rest of the UK at the moment”.