which led to him being offered his own show on BBC TV which ran for more than 20 years. He went on to have five hits in the top 10: Walk Tall, The Special Years, Elusive Butterfly, What Would I Be and If The Whole World Stopped Loving.

Doonican’s jumpers became his trademark along with the rocking chair from which he often performed hits, including Paddy McGinty’s Goat. His show launched numerous artists’ careers, including that of comedian Dave Allen.

Val Doonican in his trademark rocking chair. Photograph: PR

He retired in 2009 after more than 60 years in showbusiness. A keen golfer and watercolour painter, in July 2011 he was handed the freedom of the town of Waterford.Home ownership is set to become a thing of the past, according to the entrepreneur behind London co-living start-up The Collective, because socially liberated millennials are more likely to choose "living as a service".

The Collective's chief operating officer James Scott said that the changing housing needs of Generation Y – who are settling down later, if at all – is leading to a future where everyone is "homeless".

"In the future we will all be homeless," he said, addressing an audience at the Tech Open Air festival in Berlin yesterday.

"Where previously we moved straight from adolescence into adulthood, we now take our time to become more socially liberated and culturally diverse, experimenting to find out what – and who – we love, before committing to it in adulthood."

"Suspended adulthood"