The Great Australian dream is changing, as more and more Aussies opt for apartments over single family dwellings.
"Apartment and unit living has taken off. Young people are moving into units and apartments for living more than they used to," Belinda Sugars, franchise owner and mortgage broker at Mortgage Choice Parkside, told Australian Broker.
"The security of your own property is still quite important in the Australian psyche," the Adelaide-based broker explained. Buying an apartment is definitely out of the box for Australia, because the quarter-acre block has always been part of the history of buying a home. That's what peoples' parents had. The norm was not to live in an apartment. It's always been preferable to live in a home where you don't have to follow Strata corporation guidelines — guidelines that say, you can't do this, or you can't do that. Or you have to live next door to someone with a wall. And apartments are smaller; there's less freedom, less open space around you if you're in an apartment block or unit.
"But people need a home and then reality sets in, eventually," Sugars said. "If you're 29-years-old and still live at home, or are struggling to get into the market and you've saved a decent amount, this might be your best option. And you know, at that age, a decent amount might still only be $30,000, $40,000 or $50,000. And you can't buy a home within an hour or so of the city with that. And people don't want to live too far out, because many people still have to work in the city. So it's either a unit or an apartment."
Surging property prices and a persistent housing shortage are forcing buyers to think creatively, not only about how to finance a loan, but about how to enter the market at all. Nationally, property prices rose 8.6% in the year ending in December 2025, according to Cotality's Home Value Index (HVI), with some markets, like Brisbane, Perth and Darwin, recording double-digit growth.
And with the national median home value now above $901,000 — and markets like Sydney and Brisbane firmly in million-dollar territory — affordability pressures are intensifying. When combined with an ongoing shortage of housing, the barriers to entry have become increasingly difficult to overcome.
Compounding the problem, expanded government schemes that are meant to help first-time buyers get into the market, are creating momentum and pushing up prices at the lower end of the market.
"Sometimes it's also just not an option to buy a house because they might only be able to afford, like $500,000, or $600,000. So an apartment ends up being their only option," said Claire Viskovich, founder, director and mortgage broker at Perth-based Beez Neez Finance. "Especially for younger people. They want to live close to the city. So they're happy not to have a bigger houser. They can have an apartment and live closer to the CBD."
It's little surprise, then, that sentiment is changing. In November, building approvals for private sector dwellings excluding houses — or units and apartments — surged 34.1%, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
While monthly approval data can be volatile, market participants say the surge reflects a broader change in attitudes, with growing acceptance — and renewed interest — in apartment living across Australia.
A November report by CBRE revealed that while houses are still the most sought-after type of property to buy overall, demand for apartments and townhouses increased in 2025's fourth quarter.
"Entry-level demand [in the housing market] is rising," said Kat Hale, residential valuations national director at CBRE. "This has particularly boosted interest in apartments and townhouses as affordability remains a key focus.”
Sugars added: "We don't have a lot of huge apartment blocks all over the place, but I am seeing more and more of them come up.
"And people are changing their attitudes about apartment and unit living. They're quite happy to start looking at units to live in as their home. They're starting to see that it's nice to live in a cool new apartment. You don't have gardening; you can lock it up and go away. And as more and more of their friends all do it, they'll do it too. It'll become the norm."
