Back off, Boomer! You didn’t have to go bush to buy a house

Like many Gen Zs, I’ve come to terms with the fact I will never be able to give my hypothetical future children the opportunities I was afforded: opportunities like their own bedrooms.

Young Sydneysiders are frequently told there are homes available, we’re simply too precious to move further away to get them. As an only child, “spoilt princess” allegations are nothing new, but I won’t accept them staining the record of our generation. Here’s the truth defence.

Illustration by Andrew DysonCredit:

The average Australian loan size of about $660,000 has been thrown around a lot this election season. Let’s do a quick search for houses listed for under $700,000 in Greater Sydney (that surely won’t sell for a penny under $800,000 at auction). Hurrah, maybe the Boomers have got it right after all. Cancel the Netflix subscription and get saving because results are popping up.

Many of them are in the foothills of the Blue Mountains. I can sense the charge of “indulged” on the tip of your tongue, but hold on. This isn’t about refusing to leave the inner-city suburb with the best iced strawberry matcha. For someone who works in-office at least four days a week – with no option of paying for parking without taking out … a mortgage – it’s a mega-commute.

“Your parents had to buy in a starter suburb, too,” I predict you’re protesting right now, because I’ve heard it all before. They suffered, we’re told, so as certain as death and taxes, we must too. Only, I’m not convinced they did.

When I (incessantly and passionately) argue that my mum and dad were able to buy within five kilometres of the Sydney CBD as young parents leaving behind the Sunshine State and its oh-so-affordable Queenslanders, I’m often told their inner west postcode “wasn’t as desirable” in the ’90s.

Sure, I’ll suspend my disbelief and trust that a harbour breeze and Bohemian village vibes were turnoffs. But the fact remains that my family home was a 10-minute drive from the Queen Victoria Building, the emporium that to a child was home to the magical multi-level Christmas tree and thus the heart of the city.

Occasionally, we took the scenic route and walked. According to the Herald’s own calculator, if my parents were to spend the same amount today, adjusted for inflation, they would instead be looking as far away as Glen Alpine – about 50 kilometres from the city centre.

I may be a stereotypical twenty-something who’s joined a run club, but I’m not lacing up for what Google Maps predicts would be a 13-hour hike. I humbly suggest that Gen Z’s supposed delusions of housing grandeur are overblown. I’m not so naive as to think I’m entitled to buy a house within spitting distance of the office, but how about 20 kilometres away? Being told we are too fussy for our own good is a hard pill to swallow from a cohort who didn’t need to change buses to get where they needed to go.

Some of us, of course, are willing to uproot our lives for the sake of open-plan living. I have three former colleagues who’ve bought freestanding homes in their 20s – one by moving to the Southern Highlands, another the South Coast and the third, Tamworth. They should be congratulated, but those of us who aren’t so inclined shouldn’t be judged for it.

Meg Kanofski in her rented flat: “This isn’t about refusing to leave the inner-city suburb with the best iced strawberry matcha”.

While our well-meaning superiors earnestly advise us to “just get a foot on the ladder”, the prime minister and opposition leader are at least acknowledging that the first rung is too far above young Australians’ heads to even grasp.

And we all know what they say about admitting you have a problem. But Anthony Albanese’s offer of a 5 per cent deposit doesn’t do it for me. It makes me shudder at the thought of the mortgage repayments. Peter Dutton’s proposition that we use our super isn’t worth the time of day; the amount I have wouldn’t cover the stamp duty.

I’m not alone in being unimpressed, with my peers telling this masthead they’re not earning enough to benefit from either the Coalition or Labor’s policies, even if they could scrape together the down payment. We are being told to cast our vote and along with it a spell to solve the housing crisis, which no one has shown us they have the plan or desire to fix.

Until they do, I hate to stoke the generational divide, but let’s stop pretending our versions of “undesirable” first homes are comparable.

Meg Kanofski is the Herald’s social media editor.