It’s the great Millennial shift

Millennials are entering the decade when the minimalist city apartment just won’t cut it and the divorce rate peaks. Picture: iStock

Who knows how the rest of this decade will be shaped and defined? Maybe by geopolitical events yet to unfold; perhaps by a technology yet to be developed. But one decade-shaping force that is known is the impact of demographic change. The 2020s was always going to be a tumultuous decade.

This is the decade when the baby boomer generation retreats from the workforce at a faster rate than a younger, smaller generation can enter the workforce. The net result is a shallowed labour pool, partially offset by targeted immigration. It’s also the decade in which the Millennial generation (those born from 1982 to 2000) start to age into their 40s. This pathway takes an entire generation through one of the gateways of the Australian lifecycle: from youth to middle age.

By their late 30s most Australians have partnered up, had kids and perhaps returned to the workforce. It’s the time when careers advance, businesses are established and households crest towards peak income earning capacity. (It’s also when the divorce rate peaks.) And all of a sudden, minimalist apartments in the inner city that for a decade seemed just so right for a single or a couple-only lifestyle just don’t anymore. The reason is simple. Babies, and toddlers in particular, are at odds with the space and design aesthetic of a minimalist apartment. What Millennials need as they approach 40 is accommodation that meets their family’s needs and budget. What they require is three (or four) bedrooms, two bathrooms, a front garden and a back yard where kids can play. Oh, and a Zoom room. Knowledge workers have moved beyond sending emails from a laptop on the kitchen table; a dedicated workspace is required.

The stage is set for a seismic shift in consumer preferences to play out across the decade. The next generation of Australian families will surely demand traditional homes in middle and outer suburbia or the lifestyle regions beyond. Some may even venture to provincial cities west of the Great Divide. But somehow, I just can’t see the generation that created the hipster movement embracing “dreary suburbia” as it is. They will have to make it over and create a suburban version of the hipster. And, to be perfectly blunt, they’re running out of time.

My logic is that big generations such as Boomers and their Millennial children shape consumer behaviour and create cultural subgroups along life’s journey. Boomers, for example, were hippies, dinks and yuppies in the late 20th century. Even the in-between Xers got a look-in with some edgy subgroups like punks and goths. Millennials created the hipster and popularised apartment living.

But now it’s time to move to the next stage of the life cycle. Boomers are sliding into retirement. Xers are wondering what retirement might look like once the Boomer herd has moved through. Millennials must either reconsider their inner-city lifestyle or make a virtue out of apartment living for families. Or they could boldly reinvent suburbia or treechange/seachange towns as their preferred places for Zooming-in and call this change of heart their “lifestyle shift”. The towns and suburbs they move to could be celebrated for being especially authentic, arty, community-focused, sustainable.

The reason this is important is because planners are forever reviewing the future of our cities, especially after a census. Now is the time to think about delivering a Millennial-led, family-friendly injection of skills and energy into Australia’s suburbs, lifestyle regions and provincial centres.