{"id":796291,"date":"2026-07-12T22:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796291\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T22:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:16:12","slug":"cost-of-living-crisis-australia-rate-of-young-adults-living-at-home-rises-as-cost-of-living-pressure-bites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796291\/","title":{"rendered":"Cost of living crisis\u00a0Australia: Rate of young adults living at home rises as cost-of-living pressure bites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maria Holyoake was 18 when she left her family home in south-east England to live in a rental. Her husband Gavin also left home around the same age to live on campus at university<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward three decades, and the couple now lives in Sydney\u2019s southern suburbs, along with their two adult sons, Harry, 21, and Alex, 19, who show no signs of leaving home. It is a trend that is growing across Australia, in part due to rising cost-of-living<\/a> and dwindling housing affordability<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Maria<\/p>\n

Maria Holyoake with husband Gavin and sons Alex, left, and Harry, right, are part of the trend of young adults living at home longer.\u00a0Supplied<\/p>\n

Just last week, the head of Australia\u2019s Productivity Commission Danielle Wood warned that Australia\u2019s property market was becoming less accessible to young people, while decades of the housing market rising faster than incomes meant young people faced a bleak future when it came to housing affordability.<\/p>\n

Domain\u2019s latest rental report, released July 8, showed record-high rents across Australian capital cities and near-record low vacancies. <\/p>\n

Sydney house rents surged 6.3 per cent ($50) in the June quarter to a record $850 per week, while the cost of renting a unit in Sydney increased by 4 per cent ($30) to a record $780 per week.<\/p>\n

Sydney\u2019s vacancy rate was unchanged compared to the same period last year and was at a record low.<\/p>\n

McCrindle Research revealed recently that adult young Australians were living at home longer with their parents<\/a>, with the most recent figures showing 70 per cent of Australians were still at home at the age of 19.<\/p>\n

This compares to 2006, when 60 per cent of Australians aged 19 lived with their parents \u2212 an increase of 10 per cent in 15 years.<\/p>\n

McCrindle blamed \u201chigh levels of student debt and a highly competitive housing market\u201d for the changing dynamic, and said 65 per cent of Australians agreed that the traditional pathway to owning a home was broken for the next generation.<\/p>\n

As a result, McCrindle said young people were \u201cdelaying traditional markers of adulthood\u201d such as moving out of home. According to its research, three-in-five, or 57 per cent, said they were \u201copen to or would welcome living in a multi-generational home with their family\u201d.<\/p>\n

And why wouldn\u2019t they? With the arrangement often coming with added benefits such as cooked meals, a built-in cleaner and having your laundry done, often for free.<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

Alex and Harry are part of a trend of adults living at home longer.\u00a0Supplied<\/p>\n

Maria told nine.com.au she was happy for her boys to stay at home \u201cuntil they are ready to go\u201d, adding it would feel strange for them not to be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do get to see them grow continuously, more so because they are at home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might not have got that time otherwise. Every moment is precious. Things like getting up early in the morning to watch the World Cup together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe watched those early morning games together, which might not have happened otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maria said it was Gavin who made the decision not to charge their sons board<\/a> while they remained at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe felt that because they were at uni, they shouldn\u2019t pay,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Harry is in his fourth year at university studying construction project management. He won a cadetship straight out of school, and juggles full-time work as a project administrator with study.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Alex has a casual job and is in his second year of an economics degree.<\/p>\n

Maria said she did all the cooking, washing and ironing for their family of four<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have got a very easy life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Happy to have them<\/p>\n

While young adults in Australia are in no hurry to move out, more parents are happy to have them \u2212 sometimes for good.<\/p>\n

The 2025 No Place Like Home report commissioned by Great Southern Bank found 23 per cent of parents said they would be happy for their children to stay at home forever.<\/p>\n

When asked what age they thought their children should move out, the most popular answer was 25 (41 per cent), followed by 26 to 35 (33 per cent).<\/p>\n

Only 2 per cent thought it was acceptable to stay home until the ages of 36 to 40, or 40 and over.<\/p>\n

Delaying adulthood<\/p>\n

McCrindle said the traditional linear path for young adults of moving out, renting and then later buying a home was shifting, and one of the biggest drivers was the property market, which was becoming less accessible to young people.<\/p>\n

\u201cOthers who had previously moved out are returning to the family nest during their peak earning and family-forming years to pool resources and accelerate their savings for a housing deposit,\u201d reports McCrindle\u2019s Attitudes Towards Multi-generational Living report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The No Place Like Home report pointed to a broader shift in attitudes towards multi-generational living, with many families prioritising financial stability and long-term housing goals over traditional timelines for moving out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maria said Harry planned to stay at home for four more years in order to save enough money to buy, and was not keen to move out and rent before then.<\/p>\n

Cultural role<\/p>\n

Maria said the situation in Australia was quite different to her family back in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn England, when you went to uni, you didn\u2019t stay at home. You moved out and lived on campus,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Of course, proximity to higher learning and employment was also a factor.<\/p>\n

While young adults in Australian capital cities have greater access to universities and jobs, those in regional areas are more likely to move away from home for study or work.<\/p>\n

Multi-generational living<\/p>\n

There is also another factor \u2212 Australia is a multicultural community, and in some cultures, young adults are more likely to stay at home.<\/p>\n

McCrindle said almost half of Australia\u2019s population had first-hand experience of mutli-generational living. <\/p>\n

Thirty-two per cent have lived in a multi-generational home in the past, while 12 per cent do so now.<\/p>\n

According to McCrindle, Australians who speak a language other than English at home are significantly more likely to have lived in a multi-generational household \u2212 71 per cent compared with 39 per cent of English-only speakers.<\/p>\n

Madhurima is 28 and lives at home with her mother and younger sister in Sydney\u2019s south-west.<\/p>\n

She works fulltime and pays all of the household bills while her mother covers the mortgage. Her younger sister is yet to start contributing.<\/p>\n

She said it was more common for adult children to stay at home in south-east Asian cultures such as hers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s seen as strange and remarked upon if an adult child were to move out without having gotten married or for another valid reason, such as moving for a job or if you\u2019re buying a home,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRent <\/a>is seen as a waste of money.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Downside of staying home<\/p>\n

While it is becoming more common to stay home longer, McCrindle said 73 per cent of Australians said they would prefer to live in a smaller apartment with privacy rather than in a larger, multi-generational property.<\/p>\n

Gen Z and Baby Boomers were more likely to crave privacy, (81 per cent and 79 per cent respectively).<\/p>\n

Lack of privacy, lifestyle clashes, disagreements over household rules and elevated noise levels were identified as the biggest hurdles of living under one roof.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the benefits include shared living costs, support for older family members, less loneliness, childcare assistance and stronger family relationships,<\/p>\n

While privacy is a factor for some, Maria said they had their own space at home.<\/p>\n

\"Maria<\/p>\n

Maria Holyoake and husband Gavin are part of a growing number of parents whose children are living at home longer.\u00a0Supplied<\/p>\n

They usually eat dinner at different times, depending on their work schedules, and often retire straight afterwards to different corners of their home.<\/p>\n

However, she said having them at home was certainly \u201cmore costly\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe food bill is a fair bit more. Not much more than when they were at school, but they are bigger boys now and they eat more.\u201d <\/p>\n

Then there are the holidays, with the boys still joining them on expensive overseas jaunts.<\/p>\n

Not that Maria would have it any other way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maria Holyoake was 18 when she left her family home in south-east England to live in a rental.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-796291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}