Sasha Barbour Gatt

Melanie Evans is the CEO of ING, the bank behind this survey, which was carried out by YouGov.

Melanie, welcome to The Briefing.

What would you say the Australian Dream looks like in 2026?

You mentioned there global impacts we've had since 2020, COVID, economic instability, whether it be inflation or interest rates, global conflicts.

you name it, we've had it in the last six years.

And you've said that that's impacted how consumers are feeling about their money and what they're actually doing with their money.

But how is that actually playing out in real terms?

What are people doing that's different?

I found it interesting in this report was the adaptability and, you know, the, well, I can't control it.

I'm going to control what I can.

And that looks like some of the things I picked up on in the report were like joining loyalty programs, choosing how to invest money, even something like rent vesting where it's like, well, I can't necessarily afford to buy where I want to live.

So I'm going to buy in another city or another suburb in my city so that I can be on the property ladder, but still living where I want to.

Now, I think that shows resilience and strength.

However, there is a part of me that kind of goes, well, it's a little bit sad that we can't, what used to get us onto the property ladder, which was having a full-time job, essentially, you could even have be a one-income household and still quite easily buy a house.

That has shifted.

Do you see how that's kind of a little bit

discouraging for people who might be coming through going, okay, well, I have to diversify and I have to do all these different things just to even think about being able to save part of a deposit?

I just want to ask on that as well in terms of getting into the property market.

Entering is one thing, but then being able to stay is another because of things like interest rate hikes.

Now, banks obviously play a huge role in that.