More Australian adult children are living at home, census data shows

What do you do when you are priced out of the housing market? Sarah Bouker, 23, and partner Anthony Joel, like a growing number of young adults, decided to stay living at home to save more money for a deposit.

With house and rent prices outpacing income growth in Melbourne and Sydney, it has become increasingly popular among adult children to live with their parents and for longer in life.

An analysis of census data by population consultancy .id estimated the average child in their mid-20s is staying at home longer, by about an extra six months over the past five years.

The proportion of 20 to 24-year-olds living with parents grew from 41.4 per cent to 43.4 per cent between 2011 and 2016. For 25 to 29-year-olds, the jump was from 15.7 per cent to 17 per cent.

Demographer Glenn Capuano said although the increase was not enormous, it was significant because there had been virtually no increase in percentage between 2006 and 2011.

“The majority are still leaving during their 20s and it’s probably a matter of necessity; at that time you’re looking at getting out, getting a job and finding a partner,” he said.

“I don’t think that has changed. It’s just housing affordability might be making it a bit harder.”

Across the country, Mr Capuano said NSW had the highest percentage of 20 to 24-year-olds living at home, followed by Victoria and South Australia. About one in five people in the 25-29 age bracket lived with their parents in NSW.

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Yu Jing Bai said living with her parents in Ashfield, in Sydney’s inner-west, had many benefits such as sharing the housework, but it “was not something to brag about”.

The 27-year-old finance analyst said in many Asian families there was also an expectation that daughters should live at home until they married or needed to move interstate for work.

“You’re quite sheltered by living at home,” Ms Bai said, adding that she would feel more independent when she eventually lived with her fiance.

But she said there were financial advantages to living at home; being able to save about half of her wage, even when paying board.

Ms Bouker, who turns 24 next month, said her partner moved in with her family in Langwarrin, in Melbourne’s south-east, about 18 months ago so they could save faster.

But she said there would always be dramas when five completely different people lived under the same roof.

“We’re able to save – out of my pay alone – about $400 a week, which is a lot more than what we’d be able to if we were renting,” she said.

The couple are looking further south-east in areas including Pakenham and rural towns such as Korumburra, to take advantage of the $20,000 Victorian first-home buyer grant.

Ms Bouker said they planned to buy land first before building a house because land prices were rising fast.

Mr Capuano said young people in metropolitan areas were likely to have more access to education and employment while staying at home, so they were less likely to leave.

“Whereas youth in regional areas, even if they stay within regional areas, are more likely to have to move to another area to access these things,” he said.

Edgar Liu, co-editor of Multigenerational Family Living, said a range of financial reasons – including expensive house prices and rents – were a big factor for people living with family.

“Quite a lot of people also have pretty unstable employment, they could be on casual or part-time work, so they can’t actually get a loan or afford to live independently,” the research fellow at the UNSW City Futures Research Centre said.

Dr Liu also pointed to the “boomerang children” phenomenon, where children moved back in with parents for a period after previously living independently.