Buying a house ‘a long way away’ for Gen Z under cost of living, property price strains

Contemporary dancer Caterina Moreno thinks about money every day. “It’s one of my biggest worries,” she says. This year she started her first full-time job since graduating from the New Zealand School of Dance in 2023.

She has a KiwiSaver account from an earlier job, but it only has a small amount of money in it.

The 22-year-old is concerned about being able to save: “Will I ever be able to buy a house?”

Moreno’s concerns echo the findings in a new report from the Financial Services Council which shows most Gen Zers are worried about the cost of living and house prices.

Stuff sought their reaction on the streets of Wellington.

A 21-year-old student, who asked not to be named, said the prospect of buying a house seems “a long way away”. He was looking for work, but jobs were hard to find. And if building blocks such as a job weren’t in place, home ownership moved further out of reach. “I think our generation is maybe at a disadvantage compared to previous generations,” said the student.

The housing market was harder to get into, and there was more global competition for jobs.

He was also worried about the implications of AI. “It’s hard to know what to study.”

He had a KiwiSaver account, but said he was “terrible” with it. “I think there’s not enough information about getting into KiwiSaver early… the importance of compound interest.”

The Financial Services Council report looks at the financial lives of young New Zealanders.

It includes data from three online surveys - in 2023, 2024 and 2025 - that each drew about 2000 valid responses from people aged 18 and over. Among the findings in the report for the 18-25 group:

• 96% are enrolled in KiwiSaver;

• 16% have New Zealand shares and 16% have international shares;

• 10% have some form of cryptocurrency;

• Job security perceptions have fallen, with 41% in 2025 saying they felt completely or very secure in their jobs, compared to 59% in 2023.

If they received a pay rise or some extra money, 62% said they would add it to their general savings, 34% would use it to pay off debts, 32% would use it to save for a home deposit, and 30% would invest it outside KiwiSaver, while 19% would spend it on a holiday and 15% would buy a new car. Asked about economic pressures:

• 95% are concerned about the cost of living;

• 87% about inflation;

• 85% about house prices;

• 68% about wage stagflation (when wages fail to keep pace with the rising price of goods and services).

Only 35% had confidence in their financial decision-making and 67% reported adverse impacts on their health and relationships due to financial stress.

The report also noted data from the Financial Markets Authority that in the 18-24 age group, 3% had KiwiSaver balances above $50,000, while half had balances of between $1000 and $10,000.

George Collis, who is studying finance and accounting at Victoria University of Wellington, said that at the age of 18, the issue of being able to buy a house was in the distance.

But he was aware of the challenges, saying he knew people who had bought into the housing market a couple of years ago, around the time prices peaked. He had looked at setting up a KiwiSaver account when he had a job while at school, but was too young at the time.

Collis had some money saved, and had been considering whether to put it into a term deposit, or to open a KiwiSaver account now. He had decided on a term deposit because he would still have access to the money. Collis was hopeful he would be able to avoid student debt, with some help from his parents. “They’re teachers and have colleagues still paying off student debt at 30,” he said.