It’s 1pm on a Saturday as I drive up to my final house inspection of the day. This morning I got to bed at 3am after working the late shift and while I’m battling the inner-city traffic, I’m trying hard to avoid thinking about the three assignments due next week. It’s exhausting.

Trying to put a roof over their heads, from left to right, Niamh Bray, Siena Fagan and Bridget Ritter.

Diligently, I film the house in question – mould-stained carpets, cracking walls, overgrown backyards, windowless lofts – to send to my housemates-to-be. All this to live near-ish to my university in Australia’s most unaffordable city, paying about half my weekly income in rent.

I will drive home, tackle my mountainous assessment task list, pick up any extra shift I am offered and submit applications for anything with four walls and a roof. There is no time for dinner with my girlfriends, let alone a date.

The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index for 2025, released this week, says young people are less happy than they were in previous generations.

Eighteen to 25-year-olds reported an average wellbeing of 66.7/100, beating out 25- to 34-year-olds at 64/100, and paling in comparison with the 78.1/100 rating bestowed........

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