For all the talk of Generation Y being locked out of the property market by high prices, it turns out that not being able to afford a home is not what young people care about the most.

In fact, housing affordability doesn’t even rate a mention in a new ThinkEducation survey of more than 1500 Australians aged 18-35.

Young people are actually much more concerned about their pay packet and personal life, the research shows. 

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As a result, the list is a lot more aspirational than you might think.

In reality, the results skew towards personal development and away from materialistic goals. Here’s what the survey shows.

There is a heavy vocational slant to the results, with salary, job, career and even how or where one lives being of high concern.

Vocational satisfaction is also undoubtedly linked to the quality of education received and the relationships had at home and in the office.

Education is clearly linked to salary satisfaction, and experts believe all survey results are linked. Photo: Shutterstock

The expert charged with directing the research said he wasn’t surprised by the slant.

“The results clearly put up front the place that a future and a career has in a person’s aspirations,” ThinkEducation Executive Dean, Professor Helmut Lueckenhausen, told The New Daily. 

“Out of all of the things people want out of their lives, the link between education, a good career and a good income underpins all of it.

“People are concerned about their jobs and their income for their future.”

While potential threats to wellbeing would change as time goes on, what youth are actually most fearful of stays the same through ages, eras and cultures, Professor Lueckenhausen observed.

“Young people I think are not any different from young people in any era and possibly in any culture,” he said. “They’re looking for clarification within the framework of what they understand life to offer them.

“In our fairly advantaged western model of that we see, education, training, professional development … as a part of how we build our pattern on existence.

“I am not sure that’s ever been different.”

Salary fixation ‘a shortsighted view’

Salary was clearly the top-ranked worry by a significant margin of almost 14 per cent, but young people who spoke to The New Daily said they were worried its importance was overstated.

Is salary success just the pay off from having a happy, balanced life? Photo: Shutterstock

“I think salary is such a shortsighted view,” Sean Reid, a 24-year-old commercial and strategy analyst, said.

“If you enjoy your career and are passionate and motivated to do well, salary will improve as a consequence. Looking at salary as straight off the bat is not ideal.

“The most important thing to me is personal relationships, but I think you’ll find that it’s because I’m not really worried about my career/salary.”

Happiness and satisfaction is a bigger worry that would lead to a higher salary too, according to marketing professional and university student Bill Fithall.

The 21-year-old told The New Daily: “An ideal situation is to be happy with where you’re at in my honest opinion.

“How you live and personal relationships are more important in my opinion, as they are more important to how happy your life is.

“People are always wanting more and more, and because of this they are never satisfied.”