Christopher Phelps

I am a housing researcher and ARC DECRA Fellow in Economics at Curtin University. My research focuses on Australian housing policy, with particular interests in affordability, intergenerational housing wealth, and housing inequality.

My PhD at Curtin examined residential segregation in Australian cities and was recognised with the 2021 Peter Barrington Gold Medal for research excellence in land economy. I currently lead the ARC DECRA project Passing the Keys: Homeownership Across Generations in Australia, which investigates how housing wealth and homeownership are transferred across generations—including support from the “Bank of Mum and Dad” and "Bank of Nan and Pop"—and how these processes shape inequality and life chances.

My work has received national and institutional recognition. In 2025, I became the first Western Australian recipient of the Federal Minister’s Early Career Housing Researcher Award, and in 2024 I was named New Researcher of the Year by Curtin University's Faculty of Business and Law.