The big generational change coming to Australian bedrooms – and it’s all because of the housing crisis
Future generations of Australian children could be forced to grow up in a bedroom with a brother or sister due to the housing shortage, a property expert fears.
This would happen even though Australia's fertility rate has been below replacement level since 1976, with couples having an average of two children.
The fertility rate for Australian women in 2021 was just 1.7.
Nevertheless, families with two children may end up sharing a bedroom with their brother or sister, as in previous decades when families typically had more children.
Future generations of Australian children could be forced to grow up sharing a bedroom with a sibling due to the housing shortage (pictured is a stock photo)
My chief housing economist, Andrew Wilson, predicted that children would no longer have a bedroom to themselves as they are used to because of the rental crisis.
“I think the only relaxation, Michael, will be social change,” he told Metropole founder Michael Yardney in a video chat.
'People's choice of rental properties will change: they will continue to live at home longer; they will start combining family groups, they will no longer have one bedroom per child.
'These kinds of choices will be made. That's the only way we're going to see vacancy rates decrease because the demand will still be there, but it will start to shift to other areas.”
Australia had a rental vacancy rate of just 1.1 percent in November, after a record 518,100 foreign migrants moved in last financial year.
Andrew Wilson, chief economist at My Housing Market, predicted that children would no longer have a bedroom to themselves as they are used to due to the rental crisis (pictured shows a rental row at Bondi)
International students make up the vast majority of international students, which especially increases competition for rental properties in Sydney and Melbourne.
While the border with Australia was closed during the Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021, social distancing rules meant fewer people lived together.
The average household size shrank to 2.5 in the 2021 census, the most recent, from 2.6 in 2016.
But the rental crisis could reverse this, with more people on average moving into Australian homes and units.