Endangered species

Children a rare sight as costs drive families out of city

Sydney risks becoming a “city without grandchildren” as the housing crisis pushes young families out.

A report from NSW Productivity Commissioner Peter Achterstraat says Sydney lost twice as many people aged 30 to 40 between 2016 and 2021 as it gained. The report found 35,000 people moved to the city, but 70,000 chose to leave.

Despite Sydney workers receiving among the highest average wages in the country, the report says the city is losing a significant number of its working-age population to other states and regional

NSW.

About two of every three departures from Sydney are from those aged between 25 and 64, which the report says shows it’s not just “grey nomads” and retirees exiting the city.

Mr Achterstraat said: “If we don’t act, we could become a city with no grandchildren.

“Many young families are leaving Sydney because they can’t afford to buy a home. Or they can only afford one in the outer suburbs with a long commute.”

Mr Achterstraat said the exodus of talent demonstrated the need for greater housing density to help Sydney become a more affordable place to live. He said “building up” inner Sydney suburbs would help boost productivity and wages.

“Sydney needs hundreds of thousands of new homes over the next two decades. Building more in the places people want to live is a key piece to solving the housing jigsaw puzzle,” he said, adding that “45,000 extra dwellings could have been built between 2017 and 2022, with no extra land, by allowing higher buildings”.

“This could have seen prices and rents 5½ per cent lower, (or) $35 a week for the median apartment or a saving of $1800 a year for renters.”

Last month Adrian Tucci, 38, packed up his family of four and moved from Leichhardt in Sydney’s inner west to Cairns in Queensland. Mr Tucci and his wife Nicole purchased a block of three units in the city for less than $1m.

“It was a difficult decision to leave family and friends,” he told the ABC. “However, the financial stress that we would have been under had we stayed and bought a property (in Sydney) would have ultimately led to a far harder and sad life.”

When Jo and Andy Roe had their second child, they knew it was time to upsize from their two-bedroom apartment on Sydney’s lower north shore.

But when the family was unable to find a larger home or an affordable price, they decided to move to Canberra in 2021.

“A small two-bedroom apartment where we were in Sydney was the price of a fourbedroom house in the suburbs in Canberra,” Mr Roe told the ABC.

“We really loved Sydney. And still do. We had good jobs, great friends.

“It was really about needing three bedrooms for less than $2m.”