High housing costs crush Australian millennial’s dreams

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By Leith van Onselen

Deloitte has released its sixth annual Millennial Survey, which gauges the views of 8,000 professional millennials born after 1982 across 30 countries.

The survey paints a depressing picture of millennials in advanced nations, with Australian millennials among the most pessimistic.

In particular, economic confidence is low across the developed world, with barely one-in-three (34%) of millennials expecting economic conditions to improve:

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Only a minority (36%) of millennials in developed nations believe that they will be better-off than their parents, whereas only 31% believe they will be happier.

Australian millennials are even more pessimistic, with only 8% of those surveyed believing they will be better-off than their parents and only 4% believing they will be happier.

Commenting on the results, David Hill, chief operating officer of Deloitte Australia, pinned part of the blame on Australia’s sky-high cost of housing. From The AFR:

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“I suspect booming house prices in the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne are partly to blame for this pessimism, with many young Australians believing the dream of owning their own home is increasingly out of reach”…

“It’s another indicator for state and federal governments of the need to find answers to the question of housing affordability.”

Finally, millennials across advanced nations do not favour the ongoing casualisation of the workforce, with an overall majority (70%) preferring the security of full-time/permanent employment:

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Full report here.

About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.