THE INTERGENERATIONAL SURVEY
Take the 60 second survey for your chance to win $500
Terms and conditions apply.
Buying a first home has always been a huge achievement, no matter when you were born. Each generation has faced a unique set of circumstances in their journey to home ownership. It’s time to have your say.
TAKE THE 60 SECOND SURVEY
Answer 6 questions for your chance to win
THE INTERGENERATIONAL SURVEY
Take the 60 second survey for your chance to win $500
Terms and conditions apply.
Buying a first home has always been a huge achievement, no matter when you were born. Each generation has faced a unique set of circumstances in their journey to home ownership. It’s time to have your say.
Answer 6 questions for your chance to win
Home ownership has declined with each generation
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, home ownership has been declining with each generation. At 29-35 years old, 65.8% of Baby Boomers owned their own home, compared to 62.1% of Gen X and 54.6% of Millennials. Let’s find out more about the challenges each generation faced.
65.8%
Baby Boomers aged 29-35 years old owned their home
62.1%
Gen X aged 29-35 years old owned their home
54.6%
Millennials aged 29-35 years old owned their home
Let's find out more about the challenges each generation faced.
Baby Boomers
1946 - 1964
Baby Boomers were born in the aftermath of WWII in a time of economic prosperity and strong population growth. Long before social media and the internet, Aussie Boomers experienced the introduction of mainstream television in 1956, becoming the first generation to grow up with TV. However, it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine for Baby Boomers when it came to purchasing their first home.
Value-to-income ratio: For Baby Boomers, homes typically cost just 3-4 times the average salary compared to the 10+ times today.
Free education: Higher education was free or low-cost for Boomers, meaning they didn’t have to pay off HECS debts.
Growing prices: Baby Boomers experienced one of the property markets’ historic “super cycles”. Unlike regular housing cycles driven by interest rates or market sentiment, a super cycle stems from deep structural changes that create lasting imbalances between supply and demand. As population growth outweighed housing supply, property prices experienced strong growth until the mid-1970s.
High interest rates: In 1974, as our older Boomers may have been house hunting, interest rates exceeded 10% p.a. for the first time due to global oil shortages. For some of the younger Boomers, interest rates reached an all time high of 17.50% p.a. in January 1990.
Gender inequality: 1974 was also the first year when some major banks started to allow women to apply for mortgages on their own merit and income. However it wasn’t until 1984 when the federal Sex Discrimination Act 1984 made it officially unlawful for any financial institution to discriminate against customers based on sex or marital status.
Gen X
1965 - 1980
Gen X experienced a lot of political changes having lived through the end of the Cold War with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. They witnessed the technological marvel of the first successful space shuttle flight in 1981, and were the first generation to have mobile phones. Gen X were presented with both opportunities and challenges on their home-buying journey.
Double income: By the time Gen X was entering adulthood, dual-income households had become the norm, meaning couples had a higher borrowing capacity than their parents and grandparents
Property price plateau: After the property super cycle of the 1970s ended, property prices trended sideways during the 1980s and 1990s making it a more stable time to buy property.
Free education: Many members of Gen X still didn’t have to pay for higher-education loans as HECS/HELP debt wasn’t introduced until 1989.
High interest rates: Older members of Generation X were impacted by the high interest rates of the early 1990s recession. Interest rates didn’t drop below 10% p.a. again until September 1991.
Global Financial Crisis: Members of Gen X were adults during the GFC in 2007-2008. The GFC saw unemployment rise by two percentage points to 5.8%, however, arguably, the biggest impact of the financial crisis was the large decline in equity prices, which reduced the wealth of Australian households by nearly 10% by March 2009.
Higher education debts: Some members of Gen X were the first to incur HECS/HELP loans, which would have decreased their borrowing capacity.
Millennials
1981 - 1996
Millennials were the first generation to grow up during the new digital age. Millennials had to adapt to the rise of the internet, smartphones and social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. During early adulthood Millennials were thrown into lockdown through the Covid-19 pandemic, presenting a new set of social and economic challenges.
Lower interest rates: The pandemic saw interest rates hit record lows when the Official Cash Rate hit just 0.1% in November 2020, where it remained until May 2022. Interest rates are still relatively low compared to the highs of the 1980s and 1990s.
Government support: Government support for first-home buyers has increased with many national and state-based schemes supporting first-home buyers to purchase. Currently the federal government’s 5% Deposit Scheme is a popular grant for first-time buyers.
High property prices: Australia’s property market has slipped into another “super cycle” fuelled by a persistent undersupply of homes, major demographic shifts and fundamental changes in how and where Australians want to live. The super cycle saw a rapid increase in house and unit prices across the country.
Value to income ratio: In September 2025, the average home cost 8.2x the average income, a record high compared with a 20-year average of 6.8.
Wage growth gap: In 2022, Cotality placed Australian wage growth over the prior 20 years at 81.7%,compared to home value growth at 193.1%.
Higher education debts: Many Millennials have HECS/HELP loans, which would have decreased their borrowing capacity.
Gen Z
1997 - 2012
Gen Z is the first true digital-native generation. Most of them do not remember life before smartphones, and all have grown up during a time of ubiquitous access to streaming content and social media. This came in handy for Gen Zers, many of whom came of age during the pandemic, when school, university and places of employment all went online during lockdown.
Lower interest rates: Much like for Millennials, current Interest rates are still relatively low compared to the highs of the 1980s and 1990s.
Government support: Government support for first-home buyers has increased with many national and state-based schemes supporting first-home buyers to purchase. Currently the federal government’s 5% Deposit Scheme is a popular grant for first-time buyers.
Value-to-income ratio: Gen Z first-home buyers face a growing gap between incomes and house prices. As of March 2026, ABS data shows the average price of a dwelling in Australia is $1,111,100, compared with an average after-tax income of $79,800. This means the average Australian home costs 14x the average after-tax income, a far greater gap than experienced by Baby Boomers.
Higher education debts: Many members of Gen Z have higher education debts, which would decrease their borrowing capacity.
Growing deposits: A 20% deposit for the average Australian home is $222,220, which is 2.8 times the average annual after-tax income, making it increasingly difficult for Gen Z to save up for a deposit.
TAKE THE 60 SECOND SURVEY
Answer 6 questions for your chance to win
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