Young New Zealanders are swapping their dream home for a dream trip, leaving their parents and grandparents to pick up the tab 

Date:  14 February 2025 by Southern Cross Travel Insurance

Many young New Zealanders are swapping saving for a home with travelling, while their parents or grandparents are considering leaving their savings behind for them, Southern Cross Travel Insurance (SCTI) research has found.  
 
The Future of Travel study, which surveyed 1,002 New Zealanders nationwide in November 2024, has shown the cost-of-living crunch is hitting home in Aotearoa with a clear generational divide. 

Of all survey participants aged 18-44, 55% said buying a house now feels out of their reach, so they are spending their money on travel and other experiences.  

Meanwhile 65% of New Zealand parents aged 45 and above said while they would like to travel more, they are instead using their savings to help their children and grandkids get ahead. They are either already financially supporting or planning on leaving their savings behind for their offspring.  

This is affecting Aucklanders aged 45 and above more with 54% of those surveyed spending less on travel to save money compared to 39% of the participants in the rest of the North Island.   

SCTI Chief Executive Officer Jo McCauley says the results of the study were startling.  

“Young people have always wanted to travel – I know I did, but I also knew I could travel and hopefully still buy a house one day.” 

“Our research indicates many young New Zealanders now sadly believe they will never be able to buy a house. So, instead of saving for a home, they’re opting to travel, with a family member hopefully helping  down the track.” 

Fortunately, these New Zealanders continue to see the value of travel insurance to protect their travel investment. Nearly 80% of the survey participants aged 18-44 agreed travel insurance was particularly important for international travel. 

“This is regardless of whether it’s a beach holiday to relax, a road trip to explore, or an authentic travel experience to immerse themselves in a new culture or eat new and exciting foods,” says McCauley. 

These three types of holidays were also the most popular with survey participants across all age groups intending to travel in the next 12 months.  

The SCTI team deals with everything from Bali belly to dog bites in Spain, and trips, falls, flu, and strokes all around the world.  

With SCTI on-call with 24/7 support, McCauley says SCTI has helped thousands of New Zealanders in some very challenging situations.  

“Fender benders thanks to kangaroos, travel plans thwarted by badly twisted ankles, strokes, or an injury due to big waves or a knock to the head can all result in high costs for New Zealanders.” 

“Air ambulance travel home has, at times, run into several hundreds of thousand dollars per case over the last 12 months,” she says. “It’s highly unlikely even the wealthiest of travellers would be able to withstand that sort of urgent expenditure, let alone manage the logistics.” 

"That’s where expert advice from a team like ours is worth its weight in gold.” 

Research highlights: 

• Participants in the study were asked if they agreed with statements including: “Buying a house is out of reach for me so I’m spending more on travel and other experiences to live my best life.” 
• Over half (55%) of New Zealanders aged 18-44 agree that buying a home is out of reach for them, so they are spending more on travel and other experiences, including one in five (21%) who strongly agreed with the statement. 
• Likelihood of agreeing to the statement: 
  - Gen Z are more likely than Millennials (64% compared to 50%) 
  - Unmarried more likely than those married (65% compared to 47%) 
  - Auckland residents more likely than other North Island residents (54% compared to 39%) 
• Nearly half of New Zealand parents aged 45 years and above agree that they are spending less on travel than they would like to, to ensure they leave some inheritance for their children/grandchildren to be able to afford a home.  
• Over two in five of these New Zealanders agree they have already supported their children/grandchildren financially in helping them get established or buy a home, and this has left them with less money for travel. 
• Gen X are more likely than Baby Boomers (54% compared to 36%), as are Auckland residents more likely than other North Island residents (54% compared to 39%) to agree that they are spending less on travel than they would like to, to make sure they leave some inheritance for their children/grandchildren to be able to buy a home.

Case study – expert help is essential to success 

Lucinda Harding and her family were visiting her father who lives in Spain in a small and very friendly village. Lucinda tries to stay active wherever she is and wanted to use the local gym but she wasn’t eligible to join – even if temporarily. So, she decided to run each day instead.  

For five days, she ran without incident around the village, but on day six it all went a bit pear-shaped. Lucinda is a dog owner and is used to them being unpredictable, but when she quietly passed a barking dog which hadn’t bothered other pedestrians, the dog attacked her and bit her, quite badly. Her husband came to the rescue when he heard her calls for help, but unfortunately not before the dog had come back a second, third and fourth time. The dog even tried to have a go at her husband. 

Lucinda is a nurse and knew dog bites could be dangerous. She was also concerned about rabies and wanted to get treatment as quickly as she could. Her husband drove her straight to the local medical centre.  

Language was always going to be an issue, but this was compounded by hospital staff telling her they couldn’t treat her unless she had a Spanish health insurance number, despite her having travel insurance. As it was clear she needed help, they started to treat her. Her husband called their insurer, Southern Cross Travel Insurance (SCTI), who answered at 2am NZ time. The emergency team member was calm and reassuring, giving Lucinda and her husband clear instructions on what to do and what to ask for. 

Lucinda got all the medical treatment she needed in Spain and was very happy with the support she received from SCTI. She only had to pay a minimal amount for some antibiotics, so she chose not to make a claim for any medical costs. But Lucinda believes if she hadn’t been able to contact the SCTI team, who responded immediately, then it would have been very difficult to get the outcome she did.  

Lucinda says when she was telling her friend about her experience, she didn’t need to say it was SCTI that she was insured with – her friend interrupted her to ask “Was it SCTI? They are amazing.” 

She had wondered about whether she should book travel insurance before the trip but Lucinda says she’s so glad she did and will certainly take out travel insurance again with SCTI. 

The locals in her father’s village felt terrible and gave her a free gym membership for the remainder of her stay. There’s always a silver lining!