Australian home ownership dream fading: Roy Morgan

Larry SchlesingerDecember 8, 2020

Australia is shifting from a nation of home owners to a nation of renters, especially among young people, according to the latest Roy Morgan State of the Nation Report. 

Just over a third (35.2%) of Australians aged 14 and over own their home outright or live in a family-owned home, compared with close to one in two (45.5%) who did so in June 1998.

When borrowers are added to the mix and home ownership is taken to its broadest sense, ownership rises 66.9%, but even this is a significant decrease from the 73.2% recorded in June 1998. 

Home ownership is particularly poor among the youngest segments of the population, with just over a quarter (27%) of young couples owning a home outright or having a mortgage. 

Roughly half (47%) of young families own a house or have a mortgage. 

In comparison, 46%% of older households own their house outright and 32% have a mortgage. 

While home ownership has declined over the past 13 years, the proportion of the population that rents has increased rising from 25.5% to 30.7% over the same period.

Norman Morris from Roy Morgan Research says the downward trend in home ownership is partly because of the increased proportion of population paying off mortgages. 

“This is most likely the result of either the increased trend to borrow against the home to do other things or housing affordability issues as a result of the boom in housing prices and interest rate increases," Morris says.

“Recently this downward trend in home ownership has accelerated, declining substantially by 2.3% points in the last two years.”

Larry Schlesinger

Larry Schlesinger was a property writer at Property Observer

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