The Australian Dream Is Being Redefined
For decades, the "great Australian dream" meant one thing: owning your own home. A house on a block of land, a backyard, and the keys firmly in your hand. But as house prices continue to soar and housing shortages grip cities and regions alike, that dream is starting to look very different — and for a growing number of Australians, it now includes sharing that home with multiple generations of family.
New research from leading research firm McCrindle has revealed a striking shift in how Australians are thinking about where and how they live. With affordability pressures reaching a breaking point, more families are turning to multigenerational living not just as a stopgap, but as a genuine long-term lifestyle choice.
The Numbers Telling the Story
The McCrindle study paints a clear picture of changing attitudes across the country. More than half of all Australians — 57 per cent — said they would consider living in a multigenerational household, meaning a home shared by two or more generations of the same family. That might look like adult children living with parents, grandparents moving in with their children and grandchildren, or a combination of all three under one roof.
Perhaps even more telling is this: 65 per cent of respondents agreed that the traditional path to home ownership is simply no longer working for the next generation. That is not a fringe opinion or the view of a vocal minority — it is the majority view of Australians who can see, firsthand, how much harder it has become to buy property compared to even a generation ago.
These are not just statistics. They represent a fundamental rethinking of what housing means to Australian families and what is actually achievable in the current market.
Why Is Housing Affordability So Broken?
Understanding why so many Australians feel the dream is broken requires looking at the forces driving up housing costs. Over the past two decades, Australian property prices — particularly in major cities like Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane — have risen dramatically, far outpacing wage growth. A home that cost a median-income earner a manageable multiple of their annual salary in the 1990s now requires buyers to stretch their finances to extraordinary limits.
Several factors have contributed to this affordability crisis:
- Chronic undersupply of housing stock, particularly in inner-city and high-demand suburban areas, has kept prices elevated even as interest rates have risen.
- Population growth, driven partly by strong migration numbers, continues to place demand pressure on an already stretched housing market.
- Construction costs have surged due to supply chain disruptions, labour shortages, and rising material prices, making new builds more expensive than ever.
- Investor activity and tax incentives like negative gearing have historically directed more properties toward investment portfolios rather than owner-occupier use.
- Stagnant wage growth relative to property price inflation has dramatically widened the gap between incomes and what is needed for a deposit and mortgage repayments.
For younger Australians in particular — millennials and Gen Z — these conditions have made the traditional milestone of buying a first home feel increasingly out of reach, no matter how diligently they save.
What Is Multigenerational Living, and How Does It Help?
Multigenerational living is not a new concept. In many cultures around the world — across Asia, Southern Europe, Latin America, and beyond — it has long been the norm for extended families to share homes and pool resources. What is new is seeing it gain serious traction in Australia, a country where independence and the single-family home have historically been deeply embedded in the cultural identity.
The financial logic is straightforward. When families combine resources — whether that means adult children contributing to mortgage repayments, parents helping fund a deposit, or grandparents offsetting costs through shared expenses — the overall financial burden on any individual member is reduced. It can mean the difference between being able to buy a home at all versus renting indefinitely.
Beyond the finances, multigenerational households offer other meaningful benefits:
- Built-in childcare support from grandparents can dramatically reduce the cost and logistical burden on working parents.
- Elderly family members receive daily social interaction and practical assistance, reducing isolation and the need for expensive aged care facilities.
- Shared household responsibilities — cooking, cleaning, maintenance — can reduce the load on any one person or couple.
- Stronger family bonds and a greater sense of community within the home are frequently cited by those who live this way.
Designing Homes for Modern Multigenerational Life
One practical challenge of multigenerational living is finding — or building — a home that genuinely works for everyone. Increasingly, Australian home builders and architects are responding to demand by designing properties with multigenerational families in mind. This includes dual-occupancy designs, secondary dwellings or granny flats, homes with separate entrances and private living zones, and flexible floor plans that can adapt as family compositions change over time.
For families considering this path, working with a builder or architect who understands these needs can make an enormous difference to how well the arrangement functions in practice. Privacy, noise management, and clear boundaries between shared and private spaces are all critical design considerations.
Is This the Future of Australian Housing?
Given the data, it seems increasingly likely that multigenerational living will move from exception to expectation in Australia over the coming years. Policymakers, planners, and the property industry will need to respond — through zoning reform, greater flexibility in housing design guidelines, and financial products tailored to multi-family purchasing arrangements.
For families wrestling with housing affordability right now, the message from the research is reassuring in its own way: you are far from alone. More than half of Australia is thinking along the same lines, and the stigma that once attached to "moving back home" or "not flying the nest" is giving way to a more pragmatic, and arguably more connected, way of living together.
The great Australian dream may not be broken — it may simply be evolving into something broader, more inclusive, and more suited to the realities of modern life.