Sydney
One of Australia's most cherished institutions is under threat. We're not talking about long weekends, the morning 'smoko' tea break or live cricket on the radio, but the much-maligned student share house.
Long regarded as a rite of passage between school and adulthood, the share house has provided generations of young Australians with their first taste of independence, romance and all-night partying while, hopefully, picking up some domestic skills.
Now it seems the shabby terrace with its futon mattresses, Che Guevara posters and empty fridge is about to disappear into the mists of time.
Experts blame this sorry turn of events on the rise of Kippers (Kids In Parents Pockets' Eroding Retirement Savings), a new generation of adult children who refuse to leave home until they turn 30 or get married.
According to the latest census, there are now 200,000 Australians aged between 25 and 29 still living in the parental home - a rise of 30 per cent over the last two decades. And Sydney, it seems, is a magnet for Kippers; the affluent suburb of St Ives has the nation's highest concentration of Kippers, with 66 per cent in that age bracket still living at home.
The social trend is now the subject of a six-part documentary series on Australian television. The Nest, to be broadcast later this month, follows the lives of three families whose adult children have chosen to remain at home into their late 20s. Three hundred families applied to appear on the show.