Half of Aussie parents are worried their kids won’t be able to afford home.
Half of Australia’s parents are worried their kids will not be able to afford to buy their own home amid a worsening housing affordability crisis.
Despite becoming a major focus of political policies for the past few years, the only parts of the country where the majority of parents still believe their kids will be able to get a place of their own are Melbourne and Sydney.
And property experts believe that has more to do with recent poor growth in the two capital cities than efforts to tackle the crisis so far.
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New research conducted for investment platform Sharesies shows 50 per cent of more than 1000 Aussie parents with kids under 18 surveyed by YouGov in April and May are anxious their kids will struggle to get their own home.
In NSW and Victoria the figure was 47 per cent, but in Western Australia where prices have boomed it was 51 per cent and in Queensland, where home values are close to double what they were just five years ago, it’s 57 per cent.
Sharesies co-founder Brooke Roberts said with $1m home prices the norm in most major capitals, the barrier to the Great Australian Dream had grown to a level that was increasingly being seen as a problem for future generations.
“Homeownership has always been seen as part of the ‘Great Australian Dream’ — now some parents will be genuinely questioning whether their kids will get that same shot,” Ms Roberts said.
Brooke Roberts from Sharesies fears Aussie parents are genuinely questioning if their kids will ever be able to afford a home.
While recently announced changes coming to capital gains tax and negative gearing are expected to have significant impacts on Australians buying investment properties so they can help their kids into the housing market later in life, she said the desire to help was expected to increase demand for investments with a lower entry point.
Sharesies are now offering investment accounts designed for kids to have funds set up in their name that they can access once they are old enough.
Real Estate Institute of Australia president Jacob Caine said after 10-15 years of surging home values, a recent slow down in home price growth in Melbourne and Sydney had likely given parents a moment to pause and contemplate the possibility that their kids might have a better experience getting into their first home than those who had done so in the past decade.
“The national conversation around housing has been preoccupied with solving this challenge of a housing market that’s accessible for all of Australians, and the recent federal budget put forward policies aimed at trying to address affordability,” Mr Caine said.
Real Estate Institute of Australia president Jacob Caine is optimistic that Australia can tread a path to a better housing future.
He noted that broader efforts to increase housing supply also showed a nation that had recognised the “main game” when it came to improving affordability.
“We find ourselves at an interesting point in the housing affordability crisis, where if all of the levers are pulled and governments across the country have the courage to support all of the right policies, then it is possible that the next generation of young Australians will have every chance of securing their first home,” Mr Caine said.
However Real Estate Buyers Agents of Australia president Melinda Jennison said as a Queensland-based parent herself, she had watched the market surge around her and wondered “how on earth our children will be able to afford the properties we are buying for clients today”.
Buyers Agent Melinda Jennison is worried recent policy announcements could hurt future generations’ home ambitions.
“There are many families factoring in that their child will be living with them for longer than previous generations,” Ms Jennison added.
“And that has definitely become more of the case more recently as prices have nearly doubled in five years in Queensland.”
She noted that some of the recent policy announcements had not necessarily been the right ones, and could inadvertently hurt first-home buyers aspiring to invest their way to a deposit — particularly changes to how capital gains tax will be applied.
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