Australians are facing a housing crisis with soaring rents and home prices, but that doesn't appear to have swayed opinions on when young adults should have flown the nest.
If you're 26 years old and still living with your parents, you shouldn't be, according to half of the 2,072 adult respondents of Canstar's latest Consumer Pulse report who chose to weigh in on the issue.
It was an opinion held equally among zoomers, millennials, gen X-ers, and baby boomers, according to the survey, and one that has remained unchanged since last year's December report.
But it's a far cry from what previous reports in 2019, 2020, and 2021 found. Respectively, respondents said Australians should be out of home by the time they're 30, 33, and 34 years old. Two of those years, 2020 and 2021, were during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when there were at times lockdowns, limits on how far people could travel, and domestic border closures.
Property research firm PropTrack's most recent rental report found advertised rents skyrocketed between 11 to 18 per cent across Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney in the year to September. The increases have come as rental listings have plummeted in most capital cities.
There were just over 700 renters polled in Canstar's latest report, and 63 per cent of them said they were hit with increases this year that averaged $59 a week.
About two-thirds of respondents said that rent increases combined with rises in other living expenses meant they would have to cut back on their spending. Some 18 per cent said that they were looking, or in the process of moving to a cheaper rental, and 4 per cent said they had, or were considering moving back in with their parents.
A fifth said their rent hikes had not impacted them, while the remaining respondents were now with housemates, unsure how the increase had affected them, or were homeless and waiting for public housing.
Higher rents and other living costs have also impacted renters' home-buying dreams, the report found.
Some 61 per cent of respondents said their saving habits had been negatively impacted, while 13 per cent said they were unaffected. About a quarter said they never intended to buy a property.
Home prices in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth are at their peaks, according to PropTrack's November home price index, which also found prices across all capital cities were up 32 per cent since March 2020.
“The Bank of Mum and Dad can provide a helping hand so long as the family finances can cope, with 22 per cent of Aussies saying parents have an obligation to help their children buy. This is down from 24 per cent a year ago, but the intent is still there," Canstar's finance expert Steve Mickenbecker said.
“For parents with the desire to help their children but not the finances, there are other forms of support being suggested, with Aussies saying financial education was the best form of support followed by rent-free accommodation.”
