Young Australians
are finding it
easier to buy a
home than sustain
one.

Conventional wisdom holds that Australia’s current housing affordability crisis is keeping younger Australians out of home ownership for longer but research by two Flinders University academics suggests that the reverse is in fact true.

Professor Andrew Beer and his colleague, Dr Debbie Faulkner, from the University’s School of Geography, Population and Environmental Management, recently completed a major research project in which 2,600 people were asked about their lifetime housing decisions.

Funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, the project revealed higher percentages of younger Australians were embarking upon home ownership than ever before.

“At the ages of 25, 30 and 35, younger Australians are entering home ownership in greater numbers than their parents or grandparents generation,” Professor Andrew Beer said.

“In addition, the average age for first entry to home purchase has fallen over the last thirty years, because of the liberalisation of home lending, rising incomes and increasing aspirations,” he said.

According to Dr Faulkner, the research also revealed that despite people entering home ownership at younger ages, they are also falling out of home ownership, largely due to divorce or separation and their resulting inability to maintain mortgage payments.

“Our research suggests that the real challenge for governments into the future is not to help more people become home purchasers, but to sustain home ownership,” Dr Faulkner said.

“It may be appropriate to redirect or review the First Home Owners Grant (FHOG) towards helping those at risk of losing their homes, rather than accelerating entry for would-be buyers,” she said.

Dr Beer said it is important to recognise that home ownership for each age group is typically measured at a single point in time on Census night.