Australians are moving house less often, but not because of the widely held view that it's all about rising house prices, new research from the e61 Institute has found.
The proportion of people moving house each year has declined from 18% in 1996 to 15% in 2021 due mainly to population ageing and Gen Zs not being in relationships and staying longer in the family home.
The research found that only short-distance moves have declined, indicating that people are still relocating for work in the same numbers.
Furthermore, declining home ownership has actually increased the mobility of 25–44 year olds due to rising rates of renting among Gen Z and millennials.
The study found that from 1996 to 2021:
The percentage of 18–24 year olds living with parents has surged from 48% to 57%
The percentage of this group living with partners has dropped from 17% to 13%
The homeownership rate has dropped from 57 to 49 for 25-34 year olds and from 72 to 65 for 35-44 year olds
In data from 2001 to 2021, the median age of leaving the parental home has increased from 23 to 24 for men and from 21 to 24 for women
In data from 2001 to 2020, the median age for buying a first home has increased from 29 to 31
"With the surge in house prices keeping new buyers out of the market, more 25-44 year olds are renting" said e61 Institute Research Manager Nick Garvin. "Renters move more often than homeowners, so this age group has become more mobile. But the big rise in adults under 25 living with parents overwhelms that trend."
"The rise in living with parents is most obvious for young women. In the past they moved out of the family home much earlier than young men, but now they appear to be moving in with partners later or not at all.
"We expected to find that Australia's mobility decline is contributing to the downward trend in job switching that e61 and others have previously documented, and were surprised that this isn't the case.
"Half of the total decline in mobility is because adults under 25 are less mobile, and the other half is due to population ageing, because people move less as they age.
