I noted earlier this week that Australia’s homeownership rate collapsed in the 40 years to 2021, as illustrated by the following chart from the 2023 Intergenerational Report:
In 1981, around 55% of Australians aged 25 to 29 owned a home. Four decades later, the homeownership rate decline to a little over 35% for 25 to 29 year-olds.
The discrepancy narrows as you move up the age scale.
The proportion of Australians aged over 70 who own a home was essentially the in 2021 as in 1981. However, this was because most people aged over 70 purchased their homes in the 1980s and 1990s, before the real estate boom.
The disparity will remain as the present cohort of under-30s progresses up the band. It will also widen as the next generation of under-30s enters the data.
The homeownership situation has likely deteriorated since the 2021 Census due to the ongoing appreciation of home prices and the surge in mortgage rates.
Indeed, PropTrack estimated that Australian housing affordability hit an all-time low this year, with only 14% of homes affordable to households on the median income:
Reflecting this reality, a survey by Accent Research showed that only 15% of respondents believed that it is possible for young Australians to buy a home without financial assistance:
This week, we learned that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese splurged $4.3 million on a beach house on the NSW Central Coast.
This was followed by an ABC investigation showing that that federal parliamentarians have a home ownership rate of 94.7%.
The figure is 66.3% for all Australians, which is skewed higher by retirees.
Of the 227 sitting MPs and senators:
- Only 12 declared no property ownership
- 67 own a single property
- 71 own two properties
- 77 own three or more properties
As I noted last time, Australia is no longer the nation of the ‘fair go’ and has transformed into a class-based society.
Intergenerational wealth transfer has replaced the Australian Dream of home ownership.
Australia’s politicians are the biggest beneficiaries of the new class-based propertocracy.
