Generation rent and the fallacy of choice

‘Generation Rent’ reflects the growing phenomenon in the UK of young people living in the private rental sector for longer periods of their lives. This is a significant change given the importance of leaving home in youth transitions to adulthood. It is further critical given the rapid expansion of the private rented sector in the UK in recent decades, and the more limited rights such private tenants have. This paper draws on qualitative evidence to highlight the impact this has on young peoples’ lives, and broader patterns of social-spatial inequality. Our research highlights that whilst young people maintain long-term preferences for homeownership they nonetheless deconstructed this normalized ideal as a ‘fallacy of choice’, for it was unachievable in reality. Influenced by the work of Foucault, Bourdieu and Bauman, we emphasize how these dominant norms of housing consumption are in tension with objective reality, for their ability to become ‘responsible homeowners’ is tempered by their material resources and the local housing opportunities available to them. Nonetheless, this does not exempt them from the ‘moral distinctions’ being made in which renting is problematized and constructed as ‘flawed consumption’. These conceptual arguments advance international scholarly debates about the governance of consumption, offering a novel theoretical lens through which to examine the difficulties facing ‘Generation Rent’.