Market likely to stay quiet until rates hit 4.9%, data show
Gen Z is the Australian generation most willing to cut discretionary spending to afford a home, according to Cotality data reported by wire service AAP on Thursday. The figures, relayed in The Guardian’s Australian live coverage, show more than 75% of all Australians were curbing their outgoings in pursuit of property — a higher rate than in Canada, the United States or the United Kingdom, where the shares sit below 70%.
Gen Z leads the willingness to sacrifice. Levels of discretionary spending — eating out, owning a car and moving from the family home into a sharehouse — have dropped among young adults in recent years, the data show. The pattern extends beyond first-time buyers: millennials, who form the largest single buyer cohort worldwide, are likewise forgoing small luxuries to afford homes large enough for their families.
Claire Corby, owner of Capital Buyers Agency, described the pattern of restraint in remarks reported by AAP: “For many, it’s around delaying things like going away, or reducing things like dinners out. People are leaving where they want to live and buying in cheaper markets.”
Prospective buyers were also selling their second car or putting off holidays while their children were young, Corby said.
The Cotality data also identify a stated trigger rate for re-entry: most Australians would not participate in the housing market until average mortgage interest rates fell to 4.9%. In August 2026 the average owner-occupier rate stood at 6.3%, above the threshold the data identify, a gap that the data suggest will keep activity subdued in the near term and allow “bold buyers to swoop in,” according to AAP’s reporting.
The Cotality framing — “People are being conservative and cautious” — captures the prevailing posture identified in the data.