Bankwest’s latest Home Truths research has uncovered a groundswell of confidence surging in WA’s young aspiring homebuyers, bucking the trends of older generations and defying the current economic headwinds.
Bankwest’s Home Truths survey collected responses from more than 1700 Australians, with a focus on WA, to better understand the needs, preferences, and attitudes of current and aspiring homeowners.
The results highlighted the increasing financial confidence of Gen Z – those aged 18-26-years-old – as they mature in their homebuying journey, as well as a bolstered resilience and determination to save for a home.
Despite one-in-two Gen Zs being negatively impacted by rental pressures, more than half (53%) of those remained confident in their ability to save money, highlighting the growing resilience of younger home buyers.
Gen Z was also putting its money where its resilience was, with the number of young aspiring homeowners either currently in the market to buy a home or actively saving leaping nine per centage points (ppt) to one-in-two (49%).
The number of Gen Zs who felt confident in understanding money matters leapt 7ppt from last year to sit at 64 per cent – equal with Millennials and greater than Gen X (62%), both of which declined year-on-year.
Gen Z was also the only generation to grow in confidence in their ability to save money, nudging up 2ppt (55%), while Millennials remained stable at 56 per cent and Gen X (-4ppt to 50%) and Baby Boomers (-1ppt to 64%) fell.
This confidence comes despite Gen Z continuing to be the hardest hit in the current competition for housing, with half (49%) now reporting to be negatively impacted by rental pressures – a surge of 9ppt from 2022.
That growth in negative impact was in contrast to the stability of Millennials (no change, 38%), Gen X (+2ppt to 31%), and Baby Boomers (+2ppt to 12%), whose life stages potentially made their circumstances less volatile.
Bankwest General Manager Customer, Marketing, and Communications Jodene Murphey said: “Bankwest has been part of the fabric of WA for 128 years, and we understand the challenges and opportunities that face the state.
“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 homebuyers, perhaps because the current environment is all they have known, in terms of the housing market.
“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 homebuyers growing in confidence, while other generations either stagnate or decline.
“Bankwest strives to be a simple, easy bank and support more Australians into their own home, with this data showing the Great Australian Dream is alive and well for young aspiring homebuyers.”
