Young home buyers in Western Australia are prepared to make sacrifices on their dream home to overcome cost-of-living pressures and enter the property market.
Bankwest’s Home Truths research surveyed 1700 Australians and found that 78 per cent of WA’s Millennials (aged 27-42) and Gen Z (aged 18-26) were prepared to sacrifice certain property features to afford a house.
Overall, Western Australians intending to buy a house in the next five years were most willing to make sacrifices on the location and buy in a cheaper suburb (38 per cent, up from 33 per cent), or buy a smaller property (36 per cent, up from 30 per cent).
However, there were clear divergences in WA and the rest of Australia, as well as the younger generations within the state compared to their more senior house-hunting counterparts.
The sacrificing of luxury features, such as a pool or a deck, was key to east coast buyers affording a home (42 per cent, up from 32 per cent), but the willingness to give away those luxuries decreased in WA (33 per cent, down from 39 per cent).
But it was a trend driven by WA’s older generations, with the state’s Gen Z (44 per cent, up from 41 per cent) and Millennials (33 per cent, up from 29 per cent) both stable in their willingness to sacrifice luxury features compared to the previous survey.
Size was the major shift in what Gen Z homeowners were prepared to sacrifice, with 43 per cent (up from 28 per cent) of respondents prepared to buy a smaller property than their preference.
WA’s Millennials were also more willing to buy in a cheaper suburb to afford a property (39 per cent, up from 36 per cent).
WA’s Gen Zs had also significantly shifted their view of the importance of a safe location, with just one-third (32 per cent) labelling it as an important feature, falling from 47 per cent previously and compared to 50 per cent of Millennials.
There was also a decrease from the previous survey in the willingness of the state’s Gen Z to move from city to country (16 per cent, down from 20 per cent), suggesting the Covid-inspired ‘tree change’ trend was fading with the pandemic.
Bankwest General Manager Customer, Marketing, and Communications, Jodene Murphy, said the research gave an important snapshot of what homebuyers were looking for in a property.
“We consistently see homeownership as important to Australians, regardless of the property market or economic conditions at any given time, and what changes is how aspiring homebuyers adapt to those situations,” Ms Murphy said.
“The current heated property market, combined with cost-of-living pressures, has not dented homebuyers’ aspirations, but we can see they are becoming more willing to sacrifice certain features to get into their own home.”
She said there were still clear differences between the west and east coast as well as the different age brackets.
“The differences between WA and the east is an interesting comparison between the two markets, but WA’s young homebuyers are in far different circumstances to older generations, eyeing smaller properties in cheaper suburbs,” she said.
“Bankwest strives to be a simple, easy bank for more homeowners across the country, with Home Truths showing the Great Australian Dream is alive and well.”
