Home ownership hopes surge for Gen Z

A yearly poll, Bankwest’s Home Truths report this year collected responses from more than 1,700 Australians, with a focus on Western Australian consumers.

Gen Z – or those aged 18 to 26 years old – also reported that they feel confident in understanding money matters, with that figure rising 7 percentage points to 64 per cent. That’s equal to Millennials’ confidence, and greater than Gen X at 62 per cent, both of which declined year-on-year.

Gen Z is also the only generation to grow in confidence in their ability to accrue savings, nudging up 2 percentage points to 55 per cent, while Millennials remained stable at 56 per cent. Gen X dropped 4 percentage points to 50 per cent, and Baby Boomers’ confidence fell 1 point, though remained robust at 64 per cent.

Some of the youngest generations’ growing confidence could simply be attributed to a growing level of maturity, as it does not appear that economic factors have shifted in their favour. Gen Z continues to be the hardest hit in the current competition for housing, with 49 per cent now reporting to be negatively impacted by rental pressures – an increase of 9 points from 2022.

Bankwest’s general manager of customer, marketing and communications, Jodene Murphy, said the latest survey has further emphasised the challenges that the current housing market presents.

“We know many Western Australians are finding it difficult in the current housing market, whether building in a rising interest rate environment or facing into the extremely low rental vacancies in the state.

“However, these results also show us that there is a surge in confidence in the youngest generation of aspiring home buyers, perhaps because the current environment is all they have known, in terms of the housing market,” she remarked.

She opined that the wavering confidence of older generations might be attributed to their experience of the market during more than a decade of low interest rates.

“It’s very much the opposite experience of Millennials, whose experience prior to the past 18 months was one of decreasing interest rates, with many having never experienced significant increases in their mortgage repayments.

“That stability within instability for Gen Z has potentially enabled them to adapt quicker to current circumstances and we can now see young home buyers growing in confidence, while other generations either stagnate or decline,” Ms Murphy noted.