The neighborhoods of Menzies sprawl comfortably across Melbourne’s outer eastern mortgage belt, where most residents outright own or mortgage their homes.
From the street, they look like models of middle-class suburban comfort. A glimpse at the ABS data on household incomes and education, showing them skewing well above the national averages, would indicate that is likely the reality indoors.
But for current or prospective renters, it’s another story. And for many of the young people who grew up here, it’s not always easy living in their childhood bedrooms, juggling university, training and work. Between the housing and cost of living crises, that ritual stepping stone to independent, adult life – renting a room in a sharehouse – is out of reach, let alone buying their own home in the neighbourhood.
Alyse Cook is 19, a fine arts student, and the cost of going to university gives her little choice but to stay living with her family in the municipality of Manningham.
“I currently am not in the financial position to move out anytime soon,” Cook says.
“I think if I didn’t have this support system, I would probably need [housing and Centrelink] services that are really hard to get – like, that people are having to jump through hoops to get”.
The 2024 Rental Affordability Index (RAI) classifies the majority of Menzies as “unaffordable”.
From Mont Albert to Warrandyte, the average renter spends between 30 and 38 per cent of their income on housing, pushing renters beyond the 30 per cent threshold commonly used to indicate rental stress.
Suburbs like Box Hill and Blackburn were classed “moderately unaffordable”, with renters spending 25 to 30 per cent of their income on rent, while in Balwyn North, classed as “severely unaffordable”, residents spend 38 to 60 per cent of their income just on the roof over their heads.
The Salvation Army’s social justice stocktake for 2025 found 65.4 per cent of Menzies residents identify housing affordability and homelessness as the top issue affecting communities within the electorate, 29 per cent report housing insecurity as a personal concern.
Warren Elliot, the external communications secretary at Salvos, says Gen Z residents of even well-off suburbs are not immune from the housing crisis.
“Sometimes when we’re seeing people they come in and they feel like there’s no future for them, they feel hopeless,” he says.
“If they’ve got HECS debts, if they’ve got high rentals, how will they even be able to save up for a deposit?”
This issue is personal for Elliot, a Menzies resident, whose 23-year-old daughter tried to move out but ended up back at home. He says housing unaffordability will force young people to move far from their support networks.
“That sense of dislocation feeds into the mental health issues that people are facing because that connection and that sense of belonging is really important,” he argues.
In what is shaping up to be a “hip pocket election”, Dr Geoffrey Robinson, a senior lecturer in politics at Deakin University, says the major parties’ focus on tax cuts and homeownership risks missing the mark for those facing rental pressures.
“Economic issues could appeal to younger voters,” Dr Robinson says. “But the way, perhaps, in which the Liberal Party is talking about them is more appealing to its traditional imagined constituency, rather than trying to build up a new base.”
Student Alyce Cook is not convinced her situation is recognised in policies being put forward by either of the major parties to address the housing crisis.
“Honestly, I just think the main political parties aren’t going to do much to help people in my situation,” she says.
“It feels like a lot of empty promises,” she says, “just like some sort of performance they’re doing to show that they’re changing things, but they just aren’t.”
History and languages student Anita, also 19, who declined publication of her full name, is in a similar position, still living at home in Manningham and relying on parental support to continue her studies.
“It seems like Labour is doing some things but it kind of gives the impression of being a little bit token, or that they’re trying but it’s not going to do much,” she says.
Anita has not made her mind up over who she will be voting for on Saturday – but she knows who won’t get her support.
“I know 100 per cent I’m not going to vote for the Liberal party, but personally I do have the opinion of, its vote for the least bad or just like the lesser of a bunch of evils.”

Labor candidate Gabriel Ng recognises housing as the top issue affecting young people in Menzies. Incumbent Liberal MP for Menzies Keith Wolahan didn’t respond to questions.
“I think a lot of people are worried, understandably, that they’ll never be able to afford a house, and even rents can be quite expensive,” Ng says.
Both major parties’ housing policies focus on increasing supply and helping first time home buyers into the market, Labor by lowering deposit requirements, and the Coalition by offering tax deductible mortgage repayments to first home buyers and access to buyers’ superannuation for a deposit.
There’s little mention of relief for renters. Labor has increased rental assistance for one million households, and pledged to work with states to improve tenant rights. The Coalition does not have direct rental affordability policies, instead proposing caps to migration to ease market pressure.
The failure of both state and federal governments to invest in public housing over the past two decades is a key factor in the housing crisis which Menzies is not insulated from, and one that can’t quickly be turned around, says Reverend Natalie Dixon-Monu, the coordinator of Boroondara Community Outreach, a mental health ministry run through Uniting Church which offers support to people who are socially isolated.

“It’s a direct consequence of shitty policy. If you look at a twenty-year lack of investment, it was both Liberal and Labour, so they’re both as bad as each other” says Dixon-Monu, a longtime community leader.
Both parties have been “too gutless” to remove housing policies that only benefit the wealthy, like negative gearing, while neglecting vulnerable people in need of public housing, she says.
“It’s just desperate.”