Melanie Evans

When you see Aussies looking for substitute products, you've got them more actively using the value stored in their rewards card to get better petrol prices, get better grocery deals, whatever it is.

And they're also reporting that they're more likely to shop at multiple stores in order to get better deals.

So Aussies are choosing cost over convenience.

I think the Australian dream in 2026 is now far more about someone's individual circumstances.

I think we've always used the word, you know, the great Australian dream is all about housing.

It's about entering the property market.

It's about climbing the property ladder.

And what you see out of this Sense of Us report is a real acknowledgement that the world has indeed changed, that the

parameters of the housing market has fundamentally changed and Aussies are doing something about that.

So if we look at what has gone on in the housing market in 1981, the median house price in Australia was three times the median average full-time salary.

Now that stat is eight times.

So coupled with the fact that we've got a cost of living situation happening, we've got

conflict around the world we've got a whole range of other things going on by necessity your pathway to entering the housing market how you think about money how you save money it has to change not just by necessity because of the environment because fundamentally that great Australian dream in the housing market has fundamentally changed over the last few generations and

Well, for a start, they're changing their mindset about how they see the future.

And what we're also seeing is that your single biggest determinant of how positive you are about the future is

is what generation you're in.

So less than 50% of baby boomers are feeling positive about the future, but 82% of Gen Zs are feeling positive about the future.

If you think about what baby boomers have experienced, they've seen conflict before, they've lived through the 1980s, early 90s recession.

So their life experience is different and their timeframe in terms of how they think about

saving money, their financial goals are somewhat shorter, obviously, than someone in Generation Z. So the first thing that we see is that people's outlooks are definitely not as positive as what they were.