My life looks successful on Instagram. So why do millennials like me feel that we’ve failed?

… because if you’re 40 (as I am) and you don’t own a property we’ve been told we’ll be renting until we retire, writes Katherine Ormerod. But why should my not-forever home be written off as second best?

Most millennials have been priced off the property ladder (Katherine Ormerod)

News today that millennials who haven’t yet bought property will likely be renting until retirement comes as no surprise to me. We’ve all heard the buzz around Generation Rent, but the sheer scale of the social and cultural shift towards renting hasn’t yet fully resonated with most – especially amongst older homeowners. As a mid-life, middle-class renter with two kids, I can’t tell you how often I get comments saying, “why don’t you just buy?” or, “you’re pouring your cash down the drain.” But what planet are these people living on?

There’s no point sugarcoating it, renting is not always the dream. I’ve lived in 15 rental homes in my life in London, Edinburgh and Cape Town and have run the full gamut of its perils. Mushrooms growing on showers, leaks and mould that landlords never fix, antisocial neighbours and of course the horror of all renters: being kicked out because landlords have decided to sell or alternatively, chosen to increase the rent way beyond your means (the last rental increase I was offered at the end of a lease was a 67 per cent hike).

If you saw me walking down the street swinging my designer handbag (cut price from Bicester, of course, but who’s to know?) or took a glance at my bouji lifestyle on Instagram, you would simply presume that I owned the period property that I live in with my boyfriend and two sons aged two and five. The Farrow & Ball painted walls, the chic décor accessories and Fermoie fabrics all point to a stable – and comfortable – accommodation situation.