The 2026 Intergenerational Report says Australia will be 55% richer per person by the 2060s, but that average hides a widening split between property owners and renters. Marketers who target the statistical midpoint are aiming at a customer who does not exist. Segment by housing tenure and life stage, not by a national average.
The Take: The pay-rise op-ed doing the rounds puts Australia 55% richer by the 2060s. True, and useless to you. A national average hides the one thing a marketer needs to see, that the country is splitting into two customers who happen to share a passport. Plan for the average and you will miss both.
The context: The 2026 Intergenerational Report projects real national income per person about 55% higher by 2065-66 and the economy more than double its current size, a forecast B&T unpacked for marketers this week. Read as a single figure it sounds like a rising tide for all. Fertility is tipped to keep sliding toward 1.34 children per woman by 2065-66, so the growth that remains leans on who arrives rather than who is born here.
The divide: The same report shows the median home now costs about eight times average full-time earnings, up from roughly four times in 1999-2000. Treasury estimates about 250,000 more households aged 25 to 34 would own a home today if 1981 ownership rates still held. Retirement splits the same way, with poverty running near 11% for retired homeowners against 67% for retirees stuck in private rental.
What the median Australian home now costs in average full-time annual salaries, double the ratio in 1999-2000
Who pays: The averages paper over two Australias forming underneath them. One owns property and is about to inherit more of it. The other rents, forms a household later and feels every price rise. They can earn the same salary and still buy in completely different ways.
For Australian operators: Retire the phrase "the average Australian customer". Segment by housing tenure and life stage before you reach for age or postcode, because a renter and an owner of the same age now behave like different markets. Write one message for the cohort gaining freedom and another for the cohort under pressure, then price and position each with honesty. Frame one version of your flagship offer around aspiration and another around value, then watch which cohort each pulls. A brand that keeps aiming at the statistical midpoint is aiming at a person who does not exist.