Young micro-investors are sinking their spare cash into shares after being locked out of the property market, leading economist Tom Piotrowski says.
Piotrowski said unaffordable property prices have made stock market investments an “attractive” choice for a record number of Australians aged under 40 as home ownership remains painfully out of reach.
“The fact that it has become increasingly difficult to establish a foothold [in the property market] has certainly contributed to the fact the ease of investing in the share market by comparison is more attractive,” Piotrowski told 9news.com.au.
“You can see a pathway to building your wealth in a more incremental way rather than having to stump up with a very sizable deposit.”
This month marks 30 years since Commonwealth Bank’s online share trading platform CommSec launched in Australia and the economic landscape has undoubtedly changed enormously since 1995.
In the mid-’90s, CommSec trades were done slowly by telephone and fax for $75 each and most investors were older, wealthier Australians.
Now, Piotrowski said, young people with various incomes are now using their smartphones to trade shares at lunch time hoping to build their “nest egg”.
And according to figures from Finder, Australians have an average of $24,020 invested in shares.
This casual investing may be funded by inheritance or a small amount of disposable income, Piotrowski said.
“We’re in the midst of one of the largest transitions of wealth from the baby boomer generation to a younger generation,” Piotrowski said.
“Some are fortunate that they might be able to get some help with a leg up to buying their first property because of that wealth transition, others perhaps might not be that lucky.
“Investing in the share market is attractive to them from that perspective because they’re coming into some money.
“They might not quite have enough for a deposit.
“From that vantage point, you’d certainly be interested in looking at the share market.”
The percentage of customers trading on CommSec aged under 40 has surged to 39.8 per cent, compared to just over 25 per cent in 2020.
CommBank revealed the rate of women with share holdings has nearly tripled in the past five years.
Piotrowski credits this with a rise in online financial literacy since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There are a lot more female content producers now that are interested in the share market, and that’s important in terms of creating a commonality with the audience,” he said.
“It’s become far more mainstream than it ever has been and that is directly tied to technology and social media.”
CommSec’s biggest day of trading in 2025 so far was in the wake of Donald Trump’s tariff announcements on April 7.
But Piotrowski said Trump’s influence likely won’t have much of a negative impact on investors willing to play the long game and ride the wave.
“Yes, things are volatile, but volatility has always been a feature of equity markets,” he said.
“From time to time, you have seismic events that create big price movements. But it’s a cliche.
“The thing that protects you against that volatility is that long-term perspective.”
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