Housing market: KPMG figures show which generation is making the most from Australia’s housing boom

Those who grew up dancing along to Madonna’s Material Girl are now very much living in a material world, with generation X the nation’s wealthiest property owners.

That’s according to accounting firm KPMG, which estimated the average Gen X family — including any kids at home — is worth more than $2 million, thanks to skyrocketing property prices and superannuation growth.

It will spark fresh debate about the uneven impact of the country’s housing affordability crisis while plenty of Gen Y and Z feel buying a dwelling is slipping out of reach.

KPMG economist Terry Rawnsley said home ownership was the “cornerstone of wealth accumulation in Australia”.

“Sometimes we forget how wealthy Australian households are,” Mr Rawnsley said.

“(But) the average is impacted by (families which have) ten investment properties . . . the top end of town will pull up the average for everyone.”

With inflation still above the Reserve Bank’s target band he stressed there would also be families “really struggling to put food on the table”.

Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964 remain the wealthiest generation, but are moving out of property and selling shares to build cash retirement buffers. Most of Gen X’s wealth — about 45 to 60 years old — is in property.

“Gen X have got the most expensive homes, the biggest homes,” Mr Rawnsley said.

“They’ve gone up the property ladder over the last decade.

“The baby boomer cohort is going in the opposite direction, starting to downsize . . . pulling money out of the share market and putting it into cash.” He said many were starting to do more fun things and “blow the inheritance”.

There is a big caveat on the figures for younger Aussies as those who still live with their parents are not counted separately — meaning the poorest millennials won’t be factored into Gen Y’s average.

The estimates were built using 2022 Australian Bureau of Statistics data updated by KPMG to account for broader economic trends since.

The analysis comes after Commonwealth Bank economists last year urged the Federal Government to move the tax burden away from income and onto wealth ahead of Treasurer Jim Chalmers’s August economic reform summit.

Mr Rawnsley said there was a degree of random luck timing entry to the residential market and agreed the government should take a look at the tax system.

“There is a bit of a challenge for the country. More and more about your wealth accumulation is (linked) to your parents or even grandparents,” he said.

“It’s not just this assumption that as boomers go they’ll give it to their kids. (Some) don’t have a lot to pass on down to the next generation.”