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THIS CROWDED HOUSE ***NEW SERIES***

Leighann Rooney & Family with Brendan- option 1 Image Name: Leighann Rooney & Family with Brendan- option 1 Description: This Crowded House Series 2 Episode 1 Presenter Brendan Courtney with Leighann Rooney and her family RTÉ2 Wednesday October 3rd 2018
This Crowded House Image Name: This Crowded House Description: This Crowded House Series 2, Episode 1 Brendan Courtney with Denise, Fred and family RTÉ2 Wednesday October 3rd 2018
This Crowded House Image Name: This Crowded House Description: This Crowded House Series 2, Episode 1 Brendan Courtney with Denise, Fred and family RTÉ2 Wednesday October 3rd 2018
This Crowded House Image Name: This Crowded House Description: This Crowded House Series 2, Episode 1 Brendan Courtney with Denise, Fred and family RTÉ2 Wednesday October 3rd 2018
This Crowded House Image Name: This Crowded House Description: This Crowded House Series 2, Episode 1 Brendan Courtney RTÉ2 Wednesday October 3rd 2018
This Crowded House Image Name: This Crowded House Description: This Crowded House Series 2, Episode 1 Brendan Courtney RTÉ2 Wednesday October 3rd
This Crowded House Image Name: This Crowded House Description: This Crowded House Series 2, Episode 1 Brendan Courtney RTÉ2 Wednesday October 3rd
This Crowded House - Series 2 Image Name: This Crowded House - Series 2 Description: This Crowded House Series 2, Episode 1 Brendan Courtney RTÉ2 Wednesday October 3rd

THIS CROWDED HOUSE

 

RTÉ 2’s This Crowded House series 2, presented by Brendan Courtney, is back exploring the not-so-unusual phenomenon of adults in their twenties and thirties living at home with their parents. Currently in Ireland, it’s estimated that almost 1-in-4 adults over 25* are living in the family home.

This Crowded House follows the journey of 12 very different Irish families as their adult children try to figure out how to move out and move on with their lives in the midst of a property crisis.

Rents have furiously spiraled in recent years – the monthly cost of renting a home in Ireland is now at an all-time high**.  The number of available homes to choose from is few and so it’s a hyper-competitive world out there. Landlords can afford to pick and choose the tenants they want.

If you want to buy, home ownership is but a distant dream for many. House prices have risen dramatically over the last 5 years, demand for ‘affordable’ homes is high, and it means that for many the only option to buy is to look further afield. 

Filmed over summer 2018, Presenter Brendan Courtney aims to help these adult children explore all their real options in this tricky housing market and help them get on the right financial path to independent futures, calling on all the necessary expertise where needed.

This Crowded House offers strong commentary on the Irish property market at a critical time in this housing crisis and reflects the stark reality facing young adults – and their parents – in this country.

Critically though, it is not just a property show. RTÉ2’s This Crowded House explores the relationships between parent and child and how living at home affects the whole family. The parents need their space… and the adult kids need a space to call their own. All this means it’s tough being a young adult in Ireland today and in many ways, this is a lost generation.

But for adult children living at home with their parents there are always options, always choices to be made – though some of those choices may prove unpalatable. 

As Brendan helps them on their journey, the real impact of the current property crisis is seen as these young Irish adults struggle to find ways to fly the nest.

 *Eurostat 2016 (22.6% between 25-34)

**Daft.ie

Episode 1 Summary

This week, Brendan meets a 28-year-old teacher and mum-of-one who boomeranged back to her parents’ house two years ago and is feeling the pressure to move out and make a home for her and her daughter.  Brendan also meets a couple and their two children who are living in limbo between two homes after struggling to find somewhere to live in the tumultuous property market of Dublin.

First up is hard-working school teacher Leighann Rooney, from Ballyfermot in Dublin, who has been living with her parents, her younger sister, her teenage brother and her little daughter- with whom she shares a bedroom with- for the past two years.

Leighann would love to try and move out and get a place on her own, but apart from the property crisis, logistically things are also tricky – her daughter goes to creche in Ballyfermot, but Leighann’s teaching job is out in Swords. Added to the mix, is the fact that Leighann doesn’t drive, even more options are closed off to her.

But as Leighann tries to navigate her limited choices, the hefty prices of rentals on the Dublin property market keep pushing her dream of building a life for her and her daughter, further and further away. Determined to find any way to move her life on, Leighann carries on, but by the end will she be left in the boxroom of her parents’ house or will she be one of the lucky ones and find a property to rent?

Meanwhile for 38-year-old Denise O’Connor, husband Fred and their two children, finding anywhere to call home has been a struggle. After returning home from Africa, the couple moved house six times in seven years after continuously falling foul of Dublin’s tricky rental market.

Currently living between Denise’s homeplace in Howth, and a friend’s house, they’ve recently secured mortgage approval, and with the help of presenter Brendan Courtney and financial expert Eoin McGee, the couple finally get to see some real options. But as they dare to dream about finally securing a family home, is it all going to fall apart just as they get their hopes up?