Research released yesterday not only shed light on the housing aspirations of young adults, but highlighted the gap that separates the subsection of Australians from achieving their first home buyer goals.
According to the Australian Housing Aspirations survey conducted by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), 60% of emerging adults aged 18–24 years named owner-occupation as their ideal.
For early adults aged 25–34, the aspiration for owner-occupation rose to 70%. As compared to the emerging adults, there was a clearer separation between the early adults with the income and education to achieve their aspirations versus those without the means, with degree-educated households exhibiting a higher confidence they can obtain ownership within five years as compared to those educated to year 12 and below.
However, the survey revealed that young Australians across both groups feel that home ownership is too distant a goal to be achieved, with many indicating they only felt purchasing a home would be possible if they rented out rooms and shared their space to help pay off the mortgage, an arrangement a majority of respondents deemed was less than favourable.
Based on an Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey, the share of emerging adults living with their parents increased from 58% to 66% between 2004 and 2016. Simultaneously, the share of early adults living with parents increased from 14% to 20%.
John Mohnacheff, group sales manager at Liberty Financial, has encouraged brokers to help dispel the myths being perpetuated by young people.
“It’s been a long time since I have seen such favourable conditions for people looking to buy their first home,” he said.
“With recent market changes and the introduction of the government’s First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, it’s important that brokers keep updated with all the information they can to help more borrowers.”
“Many first home buyers may not realise that with custom lenders like Liberty, those with credit blemishes, low deposits or gifted deposits have options. Knowing this information may help them to get in the market sooner than they expect.”
