SYDNEY: While more of us are choosing to live in single occupant dwellings, there has been a corresponding increase in multi-generational homes.
In Sydney one in four people lives in such a home, while for the rest of Australia it’s one in five. Compare that number to one in 11 for sole occupant households.
Dr Edgar Liu has been researching the pattern in Brisbane and Sydney and says the trend looks set to continue.
There are many reasons why people opt to live this way, he says, with caring for older or disabled relations and convenient childcare arrangements among them.
‘Quite a few of our participants said, “I can’t afford to send my mum to a nursing home,” or, “I don’t want to pay all that money knowing that I can take care of my mum a lot better.”‘
But housing affordability is also a large factor.