Gen Z facing ‘hostile’ rental crisis but Boomers don’t want them to move back home

Most parents don’t want their adult-aged children moving back home, but take it from a Gen Zer — between being labelled lazy and facing a hostile rental market, it’s not that easy out there.

Most Australian parents don’t want their adult kids boomeranging back home — that is moving out only to return. As a 21-year-old still cooped up with mum and dad, these findingsgenuinely gave me a new-found sense of gratitude.

That, and sympathy for my fellow 2000s babies who have no option of living at home.

I’ve watched on cautiously in recent years as conversations on the hardships being endured by young Aussies have quickly devolved into a tirade on my generation’s “laziness”, our “inability” to save like our parents did and our “quick to complain” attitudes.

I’ve genuinely had to consider whether my work ethic — Gen Z’s work ethic — could be why it may be impossible for me to ever buy a home. Maybe it is our fault.

But then I think of my friends at university, and helping them pack up their childhood bedrooms, squashing my car full of their boxes and bags.

That, followed by their starry-eyed wonder as they unlocked their new Melbourne rental, willingly blind to cupboards stained with mould, a leaking bathroom and a landlord not interested in fixing any of it. Squishing their couches against the window, they’re just proud to have been approved for a rental at all.

Boomerang kids can’t be blamed for needing to move back home with their parents.

I also think back to my university days and remember numbers dwindling in classes as classmates who lived out of home picked up extra shifts at work — a second and third job — to cover the rent.

The invites to catch up, concerts and birthday parties they had to turn down. Watching them stare at lunch menus and just ordering a side.

Our conversations — once about the dread of assignments — turned to the dread of their bank accounts. Stressing when their paycheck was late, that they might not make rent.

These people aren’t lazy. But burnt-out? Exhausted? Held to impossible standards? Way too hard on themselves? Absolutely.

Kids who just wanted to be that bit closer to uni and thought — as they should be able to — that living up their 20s with their best mates was an achievable plan.

Meanwhile, I go home to a full fridge, bills paid, and don’t think a second about how long I shower for. How bloody lucky I am.

I’m able to save in spades from my childhood bedroom.

Meanwhile, only one in five parents would actively encourage their kids to move back in if they knew they were facing a financial crisis.

TimTams costing $7.50 is enough of a financial crisis for me to refuse to move out.

Don’t get me wrong — I still pay board, and have since landing a full-time job. I’m not naive to the fact that my parents are paying a mortgage and also facing the cost-of-living crisis.

I can’t say I understand the extent of sacrifice they’ve made to support my brother and I at home.

But don’t take it from me. Let’s be blunt — I don’t even know when bin night is.

Take it from those wrangling rentals in Melbourne — all they while weathering Boomer rhetoric that consistently deems them “lazy”.

Tiana Saad, 21

Tiana Saad said Boomers don’t understand the pressures crippling the younger generation.

“I think older generations will criticise Gen Z and say that we aren’t working hard enough, but I don’t think they understand how different our situations are,” Ms Saad said.

“I don’t fully understand what (older generations) had to go through to remain independent, however, I do know that Gen Z has a pretty tough time, and I’m willing to say that it’s probably harder than when previous generations were moving out.

“Rental prices are skyrocketing, and you have to perform a dance ritual and a miracle to earn enough money while renting to even consider buying a home at our age.”

Tiana Saad worked three jobs to remain independent when she first moved out of home. Picture: Supplied

Ms Saad is now in her second year of living out of home and has already considering moving back in with her parents.

“I had to work three jobs on top of my studies to earn enough to remain independent,” she said.

“It was tough and time-consuming and only just made me enough to pay the necessary household expenses,” she said.

“The large workload caused me to have a massive burn out that impacted my health, so I’ve had to drop back down to one job, but I’m working the evening shift five days a week while in my final year of full time uni to remain earning enough.

“More and more often recently I’ll find myself thinking about what my savings would be like if I hadn’t chosen to move out of home.

“I still sometimes envy people who made the ‘right choice’ to wait until they had finished studying before moving out. It’s certainly the advice I would give anyone now.”

Tiana, left. along with so many young Aussies, has battled burnout while balancing studies, work and the surging price of living in Melbourne. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Ms Saad says she’s “very lucky” that her parents have kept her room set up in case she needs to return home.

“I want to say that I don’t think they would ask me to contribute to bills or pay rent, but I would definitely help with chores, as I did when I was originally living with them.”

Remi Lezon, 22

Remi Lezon is packing his boxes to move from his Bundoora unit back home with his parents in regional Victoria, “at least until study, work, the cost of living become clearer”.

“While I’ve never been the biggest spender, as costs rise and income doesn’t, there is a lot more looming guilt around money in general,” he said.

Remi Lezon says previous generations did not have to face the pressures currently coming up against Gen Zs. Picture: Supplied

Mr Lezon says Gen Zers have been “preyed upon” by the “extremely hostile” rental market.

“Ignoring the price gouging we have to endure regarding food and bills, the rental market alone is a joke,” he said.

“House hoarding, houses sitting vacant because renters cannot afford/won’t pay their extortionate rent costs, short leases — 12 months or less — being normalised so having to go through the financial and mental struggle of finding another place every summer, standing in the blistering heat alongside 40 other people who are going to offer more than the advertised rent just to silently cut out their competition, and so on.

“Once you finally land a place, you’re usually met with incredibly poor construction, flaky real estate agents/landlords, and a contract you’re locked into for 12 months where at its conclusion the agent/landlord will likely accuse you of damaging the place and thus take a chunk of your bond as you get kicked out the door.

“These are a series of issues that previous generations did not have to face, regardless of what they may say. This is all caused by the idea of buying a home being a sheer fantasy if you’re not reaping the benefits of that older generation — a problem created by that older generation too.”

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Now needing to move home, Mr Lezon described the support of his family a “luxury lots of people can’t fall back on”.

“They’ve been extremely supportive through it all,” he said.

“Whether you move back home because you’re struggling financially, or because you’re trying to get ahead, there is no shame. We’re lucky to have families that welcome us back as if nothing changed, because again, lots of people don’t.”

Breaking the cycle

While I — and so many in my generation — would say older generations need to reconsider their evaluation of our work ethic, I’ll happily admit my generation is far from perfect.

Dr Elisabeth Shaw of Relationships Australia NSW put it well: “Younger people cannot really realise the impact they might be having”.

Many of us feel entitled to our childhood bedrooms and move back without thinking twice.

“Are (their parents) going to have less money for aged care, for the retirement overseas trip?,” Ms Shaw said.

And so, the vicious cycle begins.

“Parents will talk to other parents and they will all validate each other that ‘yeah, young people are selfish’,” Ms Shaw said.

“Young people, then, ‘gee the older generation, they don’t need all this money’, or ‘they’ve got a big empty house’.

“All these narratives circulate … unless you make a real statement and draw attention to it, you will never be able to create change by random comments or snarky remarks.”

Sure, Gen Z aren’t perfect, but we’re desperate for the support of our parents.

I cannot express enough gratitude for the environment my parents have forged at home — if something is bugging one of us, it gets said, it gets respected and it gets resolved.

I know it’s a privilege to live at home.

My parents see, understand and don’t dismiss the pressures I’m facing as a young person trying to save in this economy.

Laziness? Not even considered a factor. Why can’t this be norm?

At the end of the day, it’s not about if you let your kids move back home or not, or charge them board or not.

It’s the words spoken into these decisions that give them real weight.

Originally published as Gen Z facing ‘hostile’ rental crisis but Boomers don’t want them to move back home