Who will be your neighbours in the next ten years?

The rise of the Glomads, MEcos and Tumbleweeders

GloMads: could place a particularly high demand on rental properties suitable for one or two on a short-term occupancy basis

A new report predicts growing trends in the types of homeowners and renters over the next decade.

"Each generation behaves differently to those who came before or after," says Stephanie McMahon, Head of Research at Strutt & Parker which has released the research. "As such, we can see changing attitudes towards rental both in younger and older generations, though not necessarily through choice.

"In addition, the prevalence of people remaining single, living longer, and having children shared between multiple homes due to separation or divorce puts greater pressure on housing stock. The traditional family structure has experienced fundamental change."

The report separates the homeowner and renter of the future into six different categoreis.

GloMads

Otherwise known as Global Nomads and usually young people who move jobs from place to place over long periods of time. They could place a particularly high demand on rental properties suitable for one or two on a short-term occupancy basis, often fully furnished or ‘menu furnished’.

The Waltons

Households with at least three generations living together in one home, whether for financial reasons or for additional support of the older or younger members. They could also be households sharing living arrangements with friends.

MEcos

These are people who are especially mindful of health and wellbeing issues. Accordingly, they want a home that reflects this priority in terms of architecture, design and technology. The report says MEcos and their homes is currently more of a US trend.

My-Sizers

Homemovers who are looking for a property to suit their changing needs in terms of space and finances. Strutt & Parker call this the 4Ss: shrinking to share, save and spend.

Tumbleweeders

Homeowners who have homes that are too large for their needs, such as empty nesters who have not downsized or families who in the past have had ageing parents living with them.

"There is much writtenof people wishing to downsize," said Stephanie McMahon. "Our initial findings, however, point towards households wishing to right-size or ‘My-Size’, perhaps through reducing the land element of a property and keeping a big house, reducing the size of the house and expanding the land, or reducing the value of the property by moving to a cheaper location, but keeping or expanding the size of the holding."