Big Demographic Shift To Hit Housing

The greatest demographic shift to impact housing in the coming decade will be millennials moving into their 40s, according to social demographer Bernard Salt.

In 2026, there are 3.6 million Australians aged “40 something”, which will increase by 16% to 4.2 million by 2036.

Salt says it is a crucial age group as the early 40s is the time in the Australian lifecycle when many couples decide they need more space, want to leave behind apartment living and move into a separate house on a separate block of land.

This will lead to a surge in demand for larger family-style homes.

Salt says the greatest increase in those aged “40 something” in the next decade will be in Melbourne (an additional 131,000), Sydney  (114,000) and Brisbane (57,000).

And they will want to live in Melbourne, Sydney’s west and Brisbane’s south.

Salt says the housing demand means they may negotiate early access to generational wealth.

“Passing on a meaningful portion of wealth to adult kids in their needy 40s will have a bigger impact than passing it on years later when the grandchildren have left the family home,” he says.