July 15, 2026
The average first home buyer in Australia is now 36 years old. In the early 2000s it was 31. Saving a 20% deposit on a median-priced home currently takes close to 12 years on an average household income, and that figure has been climbing steadily for a decade. In this episode of the Positive Property Show, George Markoski lays out what these numbers mean for parents planning ahead, and what a workable framework for how to buy your kids property actually looks like from infancy through to early adulthood.
The Bank of Mum and Dad is already the fifth-largest lender in Australia, with parents contributing an estimated $35 billion per year to help adult children enter the property market. Roughly 40% of first home buyers now receive some form of financial assistance from family. That is not generosity. It is arithmetic.
A child born today, whose parents begin saving $50 per week into a high-interest account at 8% annual return from birth, would have approximately $130,000 by their 21st birthday. That is a deposit in a number of markets, and it required no windfall, no inheritance, and no extraordinary discipline beyond consistency.
The alternative is waiting. And waiting, in this market, has a measurable cost. Property across Australia’s capital cities has risen between 227% and 570% over the past 25 years. Sydney turned every dollar of property value from 2001 into more than five dollars by 2026. Adelaide delivered 570% growth over the same period. Units and apartments tracked almost identically to houses across that entire run, which matters because a lot of parents are mentally filtering out property types that the data does not actually penalise.
Australia’s population reached 28 million in 2026, arriving at a milestone that government forecasters in 2003 did not expect until 2051. The acceleration was driven almost entirely by migration, and the consequence for housing is not complicated. More people arriving, fewer homes being built, and a construction workforce that cannot close the gap regardless of what approvals are issued.
National rental vacancy rates have fallen to 1.5%, the lowest on record. Rents have risen 51% since 2019, adding $11,200 per year to the average rental cost. Annual rent growth has re-accelerated to 5.9%, with Darwin recording close to 10%. Rental listings have dropped 12.6% over the past year. These are the conditions a young Australian without property exposure is navigating, as both a renter and an aspiring buyer simultaneously.
Construction costs have risen 130% since 2004. New homes will cost an estimated $50,000 more to build in the current environment than they did before the Middle East conflict pushed materials prices up. The replacement cost floor keeps rising. A property purchased today is being compared against a future build cost that is already higher.
George draws a clear line between two phases, determined by whether the child is above or below 18.
For children under 18, the work is about building the financial architecture early. A savings account in the child’s name, high-interest, with regular contributions. Exposure to money concepts through earned pocket money rather than gifts. Conversations about budgets, bills, and the mechanics of how assets work. The habits formed before 18 are more durable than any lump sum transferred after the fact.
For children 18 and older, the value shifts from financial foundation to financial education. Understanding how to read a suburb, evaluate a property against demand fundamentals, structure a loan correctly, and use depreciation and offset accounts is worth more across a lifetime than a deposit handed over without context. George’s own entry into property came when he was broke, living on a friend’s couch, $50,000 in debt. He bought an Adelaide bluestone villa for $178,000. It is now worth $1.5 million. The education that got him there preceded the money by years.
CBA and NAB have both forecast RBA rate cuts in 2027. Borrowing capacity will expand when that happens. The parents who have spent the intervening period building their children’s financial literacy, and their own portfolio, will be better positioned to act on that window than those waiting for certainty before they begin.
For the complete data breakdown and the full intergenerational property framework, listen to this episode of the Positive Property Show.
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