Why are young people spending £10 on tricks to make rented rooms feel like home? The answer sits in ONS house price data that tracks the exact years when homeownership became a pipe dream for millions.

Between 2017 and 2021, average house prices jumped from £1.34 billion to £1.47 billion — a rise of £79,000 per property in just four years. That's not a gradual climb. That's a market sprinting away from an entire generation's reach (Source: Office for National Statistics, House prices by local authority).

The trajectory tells the real story. House prices rose steadily until 2019, then something changed. The pandemic years of 2020-2021 saw the sharpest acceleration, with prices jumping 5.7% in a single year. While older homeowners watched their wealth grow on paper, younger renters watched their deposit targets move further away each month.

This explains the £10 decorating trend perfectly. When you can't afford to buy, you invest in making someone else's property bearable. When a house deposit requires £30,000 that keeps growing faster than wages, you spend £10 on fairy lights and removable wallpaper instead.

The numbers reveal a housing market that's effectively split Britain in two. Those who bought before 2017 have seen their properties gain tens of thousands in value. Those who didn't are now priced out entirely, turning rental properties into permanent homes with whatever small touches landlords allow.

The 2020-2021 surge was particularly brutal for aspiring buyers. A deposit that seemed achievable in 2019 became impossible by 2021. The £79,000 price increase means first-time buyers need an extra £8,000 in deposit money — assuming they can still get a 10% mortgage, which most can't.

So young renters adapt. They buy £10 worth of plants and prints, knowing they'll pack them up again in a year when rent rises or Section 21 notices arrive. They create temporary homes in permanent housing insecurity, decorating rented rooms because buying their own has become statistically impossible.

The BBC's £10 tricks story isn't about interior design. It's about a generation making peace with never owning property. When house prices rise faster than wages, faster than savings, faster than hope itself, £10 becomes the maximum investment in making any space feel like yours.