Renting not shopping.

It was hard for my parents to understand the concept of renting when they first arrived in Australia after owning their house, but they had to accept it as a consequence of the big migration to the "sunburnt country". Renting has long moved on from the family abode, the crash pad, the one bedder or the single room in a house of six. In fact renting has long since moved from real estate into the mainstream as Millennials (we are going to run out of letters eventually, so why not give them a proper name?) look to rent everything from the classic TV, through to technology, cars, husbands and wives, dogs, toys, celebrities and all of the other things in life that make you happy.

The concept of shopping to own, is transforming to a concept of renting, products, places, ideas, people and clouds. For many the last example is seen as the major shift where technology becomes the enabler for you to store information, ideas and products in the cloud and not have them hanging around your lounge room. Seems a lot of the owning angst is about mobility and having the ability to remain unencumbered by the weight of acquisitions. Why carry around stuff when you can rent and store it somewhere else, think goget cars, information that used to belong in books and music that was only available on vinyl.

Acquiring things was always about showing off, to someone who cared, (did they really), and it said a lot about the buyer. We all have varying perceptions of people who purchase luxury goods as status, expensive car drivers and that bloke who was always spruiking about his latest HiFi acquisition. The flea market that is the web, where you can buy anything, anytime, has become overwhelming and for many it's just easier to rent and not make life long decisions about acquisitions that eventually end up on eBay. Millennials have become known as the delaying generation, including growing up, moving out and purchasing assets, giving rise to a new rental mentality or even scarier, I want it free mentality.

Millennials want to connect and renting gives them more opportunity to do that rather than remain isolated within their singular purchases. Rentals are continuous connections and expose them to more than the one off shopping transaction. The purchasing of a car being replaced by the quick hour rentals is a major concern for manufacturers trying to influence the next generation as pointed out by US Toyota president Jim Lentz at a recent conference. He said “We have to face the growing reality that today young people don’t seem to be as interested in cars as previous generations. Many young people care more about buying the latest smart phone or gaming console than getting their driver’s license.” With half of potential drivers under 19 and less of the 20 to 24 year old holding a licence, as reported by The Times, it seems Mr Lentz has something to worry about.

Is this the extinction of ownership? With more Millennials staying at home, living in density in the city, who will buy the houses that Boomers will want to sell in the next decades? Who will buy the cars that Boomers so needed in the burbs? For Millennials a car just means parking challenges, for Millennials collecting means less mobility, for Millennials renting means freedom.