Irish millennials and Gen Zers are being hit hard by the housing crisis. Many more are moving back in with their parents.

• Increasing numbers of young Irish adults live with their parents.
• A severe housing affordability crisis is to blame.
• Rents in Ireland jumped 84% between 2010 and 2022, far more than the EU average.

Housing has become so unaffordable in Ireland that younger people are increasingly moving back in with their parents — or never leaving their childhood homes, to begin with.

According to the 2022 Irish census, 41% of people between 18 and 34 years old lived with their parents — a nearly 10% increase from about a decade ago. Among 30-year-olds, 20% were living with their parents in 2022 — a jump from the 13% who were in 2011. 

This corresponds with the rising cost of housing. Rents in Ireland spiked 84% between 2010 and 2022 — significantly higher than the average EU increase of 18% during that period. The median age of a first-time homebuyer in the country rose from 35 to 39 between 2010 and 2022.

The housing crisis is tied up with a slew of other broader societal trends. Irish young people are putting off or forgoing having children in part because they can't afford it. The country's birth rate dropped by 20% between 2012 and 2022.

The housing shortage and affordability crisis have also pushed many into homelessness. The number of unhoused people in Ireland recently hit a record high.

Like in the US, a severe shortage of housing, including a dearth of income-restricted housing, is fundamentally to blame for soaring costs. High interest rates and elevated construction costs have made matters worse.

Ireland's affordability crisis is similar in many ways to the housing crunches faced by many other countries elsewhere in Europe and in the US. Countries from the Netherlands to the UK have similarly seen demand outstrip supply, with costs soaring as a result.

And in southern Europe, a surge in real estate investment has pushed home values way up in recent years, gentrifying in-demand cities, displacing longtime residents, and preventing young people from moving out of their parents' homes. Countries like Portugal and Spain are beginning to backpedal on policies like so-called "golden visas" that encourage foreign investment and help push up home prices and rents.