New research by Finder shows that 37% of young Australians believe they will never be able to afford a home – up from 23% in 2021 – despite the expected sharp fall in house prices:
Aussie home ownership expectations plunge.
Among gen Z non-homeowners, the percentage who believe they will never be able to afford a home has risen from 6% in 2021 to 15% this year, while for millennials it has increased from 21% to 34%.
Richard Whitten, home loans expert at Finder, blamed the pandemic surge in property values for the decline in home ownership expectations, which has been followed by the recent sharp lift in mortgage rates:
“House prices have skyrocketed over the past few years, and have become downright ridiculous in some areas”.
“But with economists predicting a recession and interest rates finally rising from their rock-bottom lows, it’s likely we’ll see house prices fall in the second half of 2022, especially in Sydney where prices can be more volatile.”
An OECD report released last month showed that Australian home ownership rates have plunged, especially across younger and poorer Australians:
Australian home ownership plunges across the generations.
Separate survey data from Digital Finance Analytics also showed that the median age of a first homebuyer in Australia has ballooned by 10 years over the past two decades, from 24 years in 2002 to 34 years in 2022:
First home buyers in Australia are getting older.
With the Albanese Government flagging that it will ramp-up immigration aggressively after next month’s Jobs % Skills Summit, it is hard to see how the housing situation will turn around.
I can think of few worse policies for younger Australians seeking a home than making them compete for housing against hundreds of thousands of new arrivals each and every year.
