What is driving the modern Australian homeowner? – John McGrath

Today’s property market presents a great divide between us and our grandparents. But are the reasons and motivations for buying property today still the same as they were 10, 20, or 30 years ago?

While Cotality’s Women and Property 2026 report shows that today’s potential property buyers are a mixed bag, it offers plenty of real estate opportunities for buyers and owners of every age.

For a start, three-quarters of Baby Boomers (62 to 80 years olds) have a mortgage, compared to 35% of Generation Z buyers, or those in the 14-to-29-year-old bracket.

The report also found a third of Gen Zers are renters, while another 30% live with their parents, making them the most likely of all age groups to do so.

According to Cotality, property costs and limited knowledge of the property market are the main reasons why younger people are abandoning the traditional great Australian dream.

Less than four in ten Gen Zers believe property ownership is important – a sharp difference to the one third of Baby Boomers and Gen X buyers (45- to 61-year-olds) who believe the opposite.

On the other hand, some of these earlier generations remain keen to buy a house, especially when it comes to investment opportunities. Cotality found that Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) own one quarter of residential investment properties – a higher figure than Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Gen Zers.

Meanwhile, property costs aren’t just limiting younger people’s abilities to purchase a house – it’s restricting their updates to coveted energy efficiency details. And, these details are becoming more important to home buyers of every age.

Over three in five of property owners have improved their new properties’ sustainability in some way, with popular changes including the installation of solar panels, double glazing and insulation.

So, what does all this data point to? First and foremost, I would encourage Gen Zers not to be discouraged by Cotality’s findings. As I mentioned earlier this year, this group is a highly tech-savvy one, and is determined, confident and focussed.

Westpac’s Home Ownership Report in November 2025 showed 35% of Gen Zers plan to buy their first home within five years, up 5% since January 2025. In addition, more than half of Gen Z buyers (55%) are considering rentvesting.

Other generations should also be encouraged by current times, especially when it comes to the extraordinary number of property reports, statistics and data we now have at our fingertips.

It’s true our grandparents enjoyed more affordable real estate prices, but they also experienced Australia’s highest cash rate of 17.5% in January 1990 and a near-record inflation level of 17.7% in March 1975.

But technology alone has given today’s generations an excellent reason to appreciate the 2026 market for what it can offer smart people of all ages.