Housing affordability is increasingly shaping how young people think about politics, political parties, and the future of democracy.
On this episode of DemograFix, Mike Moffatt and Cara Stern explore what research tells us about the relationship between the housing crisis and young people's political views across North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
Does declining housing affordability deepen the divide between younger and older voters? Is it pushing young people away from centrist parties, or toward the left or right? And what happens when an entire generation starts to lose faith in its ability to ever own a home?
Mike puts six statements about housing and politics to Cara, drawing on academic research and polling data to explore how housing affordability is reshaping political priorities, polarization, voter engagement, and the desire for homeownership.
Chapters:
00:00 Housing Affordability Is a Global Crisis
01:26 Could the Housing Crisis Radicalize Young Voters?
03:45 Is Housing Widening the Generational Political Divide?
06:24 Is the Housing Crisis Polarizing Young Voters?
10:12 Is Housing Pushing Young People Left or Right?
13:11 How Housing Is Creating a New Class Divide
17:12 Is the Housing Crisis Driving Political Disengagement?
19:38 Do Young People Still Want to Own a Home?
Research/links:
The Dangerous Disillusionment of Young Canadians
https://macleans.ca/politics/the-dangerous-disillusionment-of-young-canadians/
How to lose friends and alienate people: The social and political consequences of Europe’s housing crisis: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/17816858241274918
Three inconvenient truths:How to stop housing radicalising the young and killing the political centre
https://www.martenscentre.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/5.pdf
Economy and Space piece
https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/files/241804034/0308518x211022363.pdf
What drives support for large-scale housing reform?
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19491247.2026.2630075
Hosted by Mike Moffatt & Cara Stern & Sabrina Maddeaux
Produced by Meredith Martin
Edited by Sean Foreman and Canadian Civil
