Expert tells ageing brokers how to cash in on first home buyers

“Often the way into a Generation Y’s thinking with regard to financial matters is through their parents,” he told The Adviser.

“Gen Y won’t take any notice of their parents when it comes to fashion or lifestyle or whatever, but when it comes to the issues around finance and financial management, they will often say, ‘Well, yes, I’d consult with mum and dad’.

“Maybe the 58 year-old broker can leverage their networks into other fifty-somethings and say, ‘Look, how’s your son or daughter going? Do they need assistance with a loan?’ So you’re actually coming into the market through the parents rather than directly into the Generation Y [market].”

Mr Salt said many of these parents had the means and desire to help their children enter the property market.

“That might be through a cash advance, it might be helping them with security in terms of taking out a mortgage,” he said.

“Whatever it is, I think there’s an opportunity here like never before to sell not so much into the target market – that is Generation Y – but also into the parents who have done well out of property and who will want to see their children do well out of property as well.”

Mr Salt said demographic trends suggested the next decade would be a positive one for brokers as Generation Y children move out of their parents’ homes.

“I don’t think Generation Y will do this independently. I think they will draw on parents’ help and support,” he said.

“So I think any products or services or marketing that can connect baby boomers with their 27 year-old sons and daughters – that, to me, is going to strike a chord with the market over the next decade.”

Mr Salt will speak at the Better Business Summit, a roadshow that will tour Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth later in February and through into March.