How confident are Gen Z about buying a home?

New research has uncovered an upsurge in financial confidence among WA’s young aspiring homebuyers, particularly among those aged 18-26 years old, seeing better resilience and determination in saving and purchasing a home.

Bankwest surveyed more than 1,700 Australians for its latest Home Truths research, with a focus on WA, to understand the needs, preferences, and attitudes of current and aspiring homeowners. The results revealed an increase in financial confidence in respondents aged 18-26 years as well as an improved rate of resilience and determination to save for a home, with more than half (56%) reporting they are confident about their ability to save money. Also, one in two (49%) Gen Zs are either currently in the market to buy a home or actively saving, up 9%.

Gen Zs more confident about their finances

The study showed more Gen Zs reported being confident in understanding money matters, up 7% to 64%. This number is equal to that of Millennials and greater than that of Gen X (62%), both of which declined year over year.

Gen Z is also the only generation to have an increase in the number of people reporting being confident about their ability to save, up 2% to 55%, whereas there was no change among Millennials at 56% and there was a downtrend seen among Gen Xs, down 4% to 50%, and Baby Boomers, down 1% to 64%. This confidence comes despite Gen Zs being the hardest hit by the impact of the housing market, with almost half (49%) reporting they have been negatively impacted by rental pressures, up 9% year over year.

“These results also show 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,” said Jodene Murphy (pictured), general manager for customer, marketing, and communications at Bankwest. “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.”

Have thoughts on this story? Leave a comment below.