I don't think this strategy would work. Even if young people decide to forgo buying housing, they still need a place to live. Ergo, they will rent. Which will mean demand will still be the same. 

Housing is expensive partly because demand is always constant. No one can just abstain from the market.

Strong disagree

Housing prices are driven up by speculative investment that the price will go up 

If we provide a better speculative investment then some of that demand that is surplus to physical shelter will go there instead

Took me a while to realise buying property is a leveraged long. You take your 10% collateral to a bank, get loaned margin, pay funding etc, and hope all the other people going long keep the price going up. Without all the leverage in the system, maybe we’d be able to measure house prices in human working hours again